A Charlie Brown Christmas, is simply one of my favorite Christmas shows of all time. Charlie Brown is who I am; the person fed up with the commericalism and "give me" attitude of Christmas. I do my dead level best not to give into it and to shield my kids from it as much as possible. I try to help them focus on a giving attitude instead of a "getting" one. Some years, I have been more successful than others. When we are successful, those seem to end up as more enjoyable and memorable Christmases than when I am less successful.
One of the things I like so much about this Christmas classic, is the fact that Charlie Brown never gives into the commercialism like everyone else seems to have done. I identify with his exasperation that has turned the Christmas season into an all-out commercialized free for all. Thanksgiving has nearly become a blip on the calendar so that we can run out and annhilate each other trying to get the cheapest prices on electronics. In Charlie Brown's version, Sally asks for help with her Christmas list to Santa and eventually resorts to asking for ten and twenty dollar bills, Lucy is completely jaded and even ol' Snoop dog has decorated his house with an elaborate light display, earning him first place in a contest. The kids all get mad at Charlie for buying the scrawny tree instead of the colored metal one they told him to get, but after Linus quotes Luke 2, he realizes his tree is just fine. For me, the lesson learned here is that we don't have to have the biggest, best, most expensive item in order to celebrate Christmas. Jesus was born in a manger, not in a royal palace so that ALL people could understand His message.
Anyway, I'm not sure if I really like "Christmas Time is Here" because I always think the kids sound off-key, but because of it's link to Charlie Brown, it seems so quintessentially Christmas that I included it. The rest are some of my favorite clips from the movie and the final clip is when Linus quotes directly from the Bible in an attempt to help Charlie Brown figure out what Christmas is supposed to be about.
Who hasn't been so completely absorbed in something they were doing and then got caught by someone else? Poor ol' Snoop. I happen to think he had some pretty nice moves going on, but I don't think Schroeder appreciated him dancing on his piano.
Sometimes I think music today sounds exactly like Schroeder plunking away at his toy piano and that no one truly appreciates good music anymore.
It still amazes me that this passage from the Bible was allowed to air on TV.
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