Charlie Brown's Christmas Conundrum

Ah, the off-key singing of a chorus of children; the voice-over that doesn't always exactly match the animation; the tiny piano, stand-up bass, and guitar (that Snoopy hardly even plays) that's somehow meant to stand in for Vince Guaraldi's entire orchestra; it must be The Charlie Brown Christmas Special, the yearly show whose aim is to attack the commercialism of the season and put the "Christ" back in "Christmas".

There is an obvious flaw, however, with the special's aim: it has, itself, become a major part of the commercialism of the Christmas season. Indeed, on the Christmas tree currently in my eye line, there are Linus and Lucy ornaments depicting the characters as they appear in the special's musical finale, and that is merely the tip of the massive iceberg that is the Charlie Brown empire, which continues to get a yearly boost from the Christmas Special, which, again, argues against just such a commercial focus on Christmas.

However, I still buy the Special itself as sincere. Linus's slightly lisped, spotlighted (who's running the spotlight?), bible verse speech manages to still be (at least, somewhat) moving decades after it first aired, I still like it when Charlie Brown's sincere, puny little tree is made stronger by the power of love and togetherness (maybe that's what's happening anyway) and I always feel a little charge when Charlie Brown returns to find his friends together and the tree's now beautiful and he gets to have one good, happy moment at last.

But, all warm and fuzzy feelings aside, one can't escape the fact that the Special is attempting to bring religion to the forefront of Christmas celebrating, while we all ignore that and just focus on toys and gifts and decorating and cooking and sales and wrapping and television and movies and everything else, some of which is being sold as connected to the Charlie Brown Christmas Special.

So, while I can't fault the Charlie Brown Special for what's been down with it and to it, it is always interesting to point out our inherent hypocrisy and greed.