“Doesn’t anybody know what Christmas is all about?” asks Charlie Brown in the classic animated show A Charlie Brown Christmas. This has been my favorite Christmas show ever since I can remember. Being a jazz fan I love the music by jazz legend Vince Guaraldi. As much as the show is a holiday staple (and cash cow for CBS), it almost didn’t make it to the airwaves in 1965. The two producers who worked closely with Charlie Brown creator Charles Schultz tried desperately to convince a network to show the special originally. All the major networks were hesitant. Finally, one agreed, and the great cartoonist got to work.
Executive producer Lee Mendelson says that CBS network executives hated the show when they viewed a rough cut of it in November of that year. “They said it was slow,” says Mendelson, who, along with animator Bill Melendez, told Schulz, “You can’t read from the Bible on network television.” Schulz’s desires prevailed, however, and the simple cartoon special garnered an unbelievable 50 percent of the nation’s viewers that first year. It went on to win both an Emmy and a Peabody award. Pop Culture experts affirm that the program, now considered an icon, draws strength from its back-to-the-basics approach.
A memorable and moving part of A Charlie Brown Christmas occurs when the cartoon character Linus strolls to center stage and reads the biblical account of the meaning of Christmas in response to Charlie Brown’s plaintive cry to understand the true meaning of Christmas. The two producers working with Schultz cautioned him about putting something like that in the special, because they were convinced it wouldn’t go over well. Charles Schultz faced both of the producers and said, “If not us, then who’s going to do it?”
If we, as God’s people, are not going to demonstrate the meaning of Christmas in our lives and in our celebration, then who will? In contrast to the opinions and dictates of powerful people, Charles Schultz insisted on maintaining the biblical account as the central theme of his show. Consider our culture today—many times more hostile to the true meaning of Christmas than that of the 60’s. Are you maintaining the central Truth of Christ in your celebration this year? If not us, then who’s going to do it? Who are you telling about the Christ of Christmas this year? If not you, then who?
Chris Higgins 