With Christmas right around the corner, it’s time to revisit once more one of the cutest and most iconic animated specials of all time: A Charlie Brown Christmas, featuring the Peanuts gang trying to find the meaning of Christmas in a modern scenario controlled by consumerism, which proves the special is still relevant to this day.
Not so many people know that many storylines from A Charlie Brown Christmas as well as other iconic Peanuts specials adapt iconic moments from the strips written by Charles M. Schultz, with the 1960s representing what’s arguably the Peanuts‘ peak in terms of quality.
Snoopy’s New Year
The very first Snoopy appearance of the 1960s, this strip features a hilarious Snoopy existential crisis. It’s always naturally funny whenever Schultz attributes human characteristics to the beloved character, in this case the dog’s serious, contemplative attitude as he ponders the arrival of a new year makes it all the funnier.
The way the strip gradually builds up its punch line is brilliant, finishing up with Snoopy lying on top of his house, as usual, highlighting to devoted fans the marvelous consistency he’s so proud of.
Happiness Is A Warm Puppy
One of the best Peanuts strips of all time and also one of the most famous, this one features a side of Lucy that she tends to hide from the Peanuts gang, or perhaps she just happened to start off that day on the right foot. This strip is hilariously relatable to anyone who can’t resist petting an unsuspecting dog whenever one crosses their path. Rather than going for a quick gag or a typical Lucy crabby outburst, the strip is just adorably wholesome in its entirety.
Rainy Day
On a brilliant extended Sunday strip, Schultz portrays a rainy day abruptly interrupting the fun of the Peanuts gang amid a baseball match, featuring a Linus indignant at Charlie Brown’s subtle reluctance to go home, engaging in a fierce, almost Shakespearian monologue in which he hilarious contradicts himself. What makes this strip so special is Schultz’s talent to capture the small intricacies of childhood, addressing a relatable nostalgia of long-gone Sunday matches with friends, occasionally ruined by a pouring rain nobody asked for.
Flying Reindeer
It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is unanimously regarded as one of the most iconic Peanuts seasonal specials, and this strip features one of the funniest moments adapted to the TV film.
Sally might be the sweetest member of the Peanuts gang, and although she has a crush on Linus, it doesn’t stop her from delivering witty remarks about the absurdity of the Great Pumpkin’s legend. She does eventually follow Linus to the Pumpkin path, which shows her commitment to the boy since even a flying reindeer sounds more believable than the boy’s Halloween fantasy, which consistently featured almost all the Peanuts Halloween-related strips of the 1960s.
Woodstock First Appearance
According to the official Peanuts website and the majority of fans, this strip features Woodstock’s first appearance, and it couldn’t get more adorable than this. Although he would only be named in the 1970s after the legendary Woodstock music festival, the strip introduces the small yellow bird who would eventually become Snoopy’s dearest friend in an unusual chance encounter.
The amusing connection between Snoopy and Woodstock is clear from the get-go: Woodstock was immediately drawn to Snoopy, sitting peacefully on his nose, and Snoopy acknowledges what might’ve brought the innocent bird to him. It’s an unassuming, precious moment in the Peanuts history.
Lucy’s Caring Side
Every Peanuts character has a distinct personality: Charlie Brown tends to over-dramatize everything. Linus’ naivety offers a range of inventive ideas. Schroeder is obsessed with Beethoven. Lucy consistently is the grumpy, bossy member of the group. Whenever Schultz offers slight tweaks in each character’s personality, he catches devoted fans off-guard, and this strip brilliantly subverts the reader’s expectations when it initially hints at Lucy’s caring side, just to immediately switch back to her conventional personality with an unassumingly snide remark.
Snoopy Wants To Get Married
In one of the funniest Snoopy storylines of the 1960s, the sweet dog grows increasingly fonder of another beagle he likes to ice skate with, culminating in Snoopy’s serious intention to get married.
This leads to a wholesome moment between Charlie Brown and his dog, in which the boy gives Snoopy his go-ahead. For as adorable as the strip is, it’s actually a hilarious satire of a typical period romance trope in which the passionate character shares a heartfelt moment with their family after getting their marriage endorsement, and even Schultz’s clever choice of words call up to these same old cliches. The somewhat sweet awkwardness between Charlie Brown and Snoopy adds up to a hilarious strip.
Bark For The Sake Of Barking
Just like other iconic comic animal characters such as Garfield and Hobbes, Snoopy is far from being a regular dog and Schultz knows that. Whenever the character acts like he’s “supposed” to act, his attitude is quickly turned into a joke.
This strip might be the best example of that. While devoted fans usually have access to Snoopy’s thoughts as well as other funny sounds he makes, they seldom see the dog doing dog stuff. Lucy’s confusion is hilarious and relatable as Snoopy insistently barks just for the sake of barking.
Never Eat January Snowflakes
This great Christmas strip made it to the animated special A Charlie Brown Christmas, a heartfelt story featuring Charlie Brown trying to find the true meaning of Christmas. Although the special relies heavenly on a cleverly constructed social commentary about America turning the holiday season into a consumerist fest, putting money over spirituality, A Charlie Brown Christmas has a lot of innocent moments such as the one described in the strip, featuring a confused Linus at Lucy’s confident remark about February snowflakes being much better. The strip highlights the clashing personalities of the two characters, with Lucy’s self-assured manners triggering Linus’ naive curiosity.
What Would Be Your Reaction?
If Nietzsche’s philosophy could be summed up in a single children’s strip, this one would be it. Needling the concept of the eternal return, Schultz brings the possibility of his characters reliving their life all over again, without changing anything, which causes Charlie Brown to scream and run away in despair.
Linus once said to his best friend that of all the Charlie Browns in the world, Charlie Brown is definitely the Charlie Browniest. In this strip, Schultz comically highlights the character’s tendency to over-dramatize everything to the point he’s left without words, leading up to one of the best Peanuts punch lines.
