Snoopy season is officially upon us! That means it’s time for my favorite holiday specials: It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving; and A Charlie Brown Christmas. All three of these shorts are masterpieces, and I want to delve into why each is special to me.
The Great Pumpkin
The Great Pumpkin is so unbelievably cozy. There is something about it that is just so warm and nostalgic that makes it feel like a big hug or a greedy gulp of hot cinnamon tea. The iconic pumpkin patch, the lively music, Snoopy as the Red Baron β I mean, what more could you want?
One of my family’s favorite lines in this special is Charlie Brown’s sad (but hilarious), “I got a rock,” which we repeat year-round when the occasion warrants it. (Who gives a kid a rock on Halloween?) It’s rather unbelievable how mean everyone is in these specials β was Schultz okay?
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
While I love A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, I have to say that it doesn’t hold a candle to the other two seasonal specials; however, the bar is very high. Perhaps I simply don’t enjoy it as much because I prefer Christmas and Halloween to Thanksgiving. Regardless, this special still has a lot going for it: the comic battle between Snoopy and the folding chair, the arrival of cheeky Woodstock, the presumptuousness of Peppermint Patty, and, of course, the legendary Thanksgiving feast of toast, pretzels, popcorn, jellybeans, and milkshakes (aka, my dream Thanksgiving dinner as a kid).
A Charlie Brown Christmas
No one could have ever devised a better way to open a special than Schultz did for A Charlie Brown Christmas: the iconic “Christmastime is Here” playing in the background with the characters skating playfully on the ice β what an incredible beginning! (As soon as I started to write this section, the song immediately began to play in my head, and I saw in my mind the ice-skating scene.) I love the jabs at the commercialization of Christmas and the reminder, most potently expressed in Linus’ unforgettable recitation of the manger scene, of what the season is really all about.