SeedSing's Advent Calendar of Awesome Holiday Television Programs: Day 1 - "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we will present a new awesome holiday television program for every day of Advent. This is the greatest tv of the season. Enjoy.

Day 1: A Charlie Brown Christmas. Original air date December 9th, 1965

The holiday season can be filled with angst, frustration, and depression.The terrible traffic, the non-stop advertisements, the rude people, these all make December a rough month for many people. The latest, hottest, toys are overpriced and can never be found in the stores. Idiots are on YouTube complaining about Starbucks cups. Lexus is still running those moronic ads where some idiot buys his wife a new car for Christmas, and instead of divorcing the jackass, she jumps up for joy when she spies the gauche red bow on top of the car. Many a December night, people cry out in their minds "What does it all mean".

On December 9th, 1965, CBS aired the first, of many, Peanuts holiday specials simply titled A Charlie Brown Christmas. The special was written by Peanuts creator Charles M. Schultz, based on his wildly popular comic strip. The show was an immediate hit. A Charlie Brown Christmas has been shown every year since the premier, and the program has won an Emmy and a Peabody Award. The jazz soundtrack by Vince Guaraldi was also a smash success, and created one of the most iconic holiday songs ever. Multiple generations have grown up watching, and loving, A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Part of the appeal that is A Charlie Brown Christmas is in the tone of the story. Many shows that focus on Christmas are filled with joy and excitement. A Charlie Brown Christmas is slow and filled with big questions. Charlie Brown is frustrated with the Christmas season, and he acknowledges that the holidays make him depressed. Everyone around him is only interested in the commercial aspects of the holiday. Even his dog Snoopy is trying to cash in on the facade of Christmas. When Charlie Brown seeks counsel from Lucy on what to do about his depression, she informs him that his problem is that Charlie Brown is not involved enough. Lucy is saying that Charlie Brown should join the crowd and celebrate Christmas like they do.

The way Charlie Brown gets involved is by directing the other kids in a nativity play. Instead of the kids practicing for a manger scene, the world instead gets the greatest dancing ever committed to pop culture. This does not sit well with Charlie Brown, he still does not see the meaning of Christmas. Lucy continues her charitable work and urges Charlie Brown to go get a fancy, modern, tree for the play. The artifice of Christmas wins out over tradition again.

Many people will point to Linus reciting the Gospel of Luke Chapter 2, Verses 8 - 14 as the moment where A Charlie Brown Christmas reveals what the holidays really mean. I disagree. That is a powerful moment, and I am not a religious person, but the real meaning of Christmas is found in the tree Charlie Brown purchases. All the other kids are right to laugh at Charlie Brown, he purposefully bought an inferior product. The little, weak, tree did not represent the modern spirit of Christmas. It was not flashy, new, and exciting. The kids wanted a tree that matched their dancing, and their dancing was crazy.

The little tree purchased at the lot represents the bridge between a traditional and a new Christmas. Charlie Brown's tree was something struggling for life amongst the cold and commercialization of December. The tree represented that little bit of hope the shepherds were looking for in the Gospel of Luke. But while the story of the nativity is an old tale of mankind's hope, Charlie Brown's tree became an updated version of the Bible story. The simple tree brought light into Charlie Brown's dark holiday season. Even when he gives up hope again, the other kids adapt the tree to look more modern. What Christmas means to someone in 1965, or 2016, is not found in a Bible fable, it is found in taking the tale and modernizing it. The Peanuts kids took the simple tree, and made it fit with the time. The clothes that Christmas wears are flashy and new, but the heart can still be a tree that needed someone to care. A group of people quietly humming a beautiful hymn, in the late night snow, with a simple tree dressed for a modern time, that is where we find joy in the holiday season of today.

A Charlie Brown Christmas is the perfect holiday television program in getting one ready for the holiday season. The problems faced by Charlie Brown are the same ones we face today. Over-commercialisation, feelings of isolation, and wicked dancing, these things existed in 1965 and are still around today. The lesson is not to dismiss all the modern problems that have taken over the holidays, we should find a way to meld the traditions with the new, and better, things. The heart of Christmas may originate from a 2000-year-old Bible story that was about finding hope in a dark night, and that heart does not have to change. We can take the ancient lessons of togetherness and humanity and put a modern dress on it. There is nothing wrong with adding some wicked dance moves to the angel of the Lord's message delivered to the shepherds. That is what Christmas is all about.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He will also only eat February snowflakes. December flakes are way too sour.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing