We admit it -- we have great stretches of A Charlie Brown Christmas memorized to the word. What do you want, we had a copy of it on LP when we were kids and listened to it well into our teens. Also, it is that rarest of things: a perfect half-hour of television.
No fooling, we know this thing so well that sometimes during the holiday season, we'll just be walking down the street as the snow begins to fall or people with bags full of presents pass by and lines will pop into our head:
How about tens and twenties?
Don't you know sarcasm when you hear it?
You know, Santa Claus and ho-ho-ho, and mistletoe and presents to pretty girls.
Real estate.
Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you're the Charlie Browniest.
And of course, there's the music, which is equally as iconic as the special itself, if not more so, having insinuated its way into the Christmas ethos in the insidious and irrevocable way that only music could. Was Vince Guaraldi the first person to really clue us in that Christmas can be a sad sort of affair -- and that's OK? Hard to say for sure, but it's unlikely that Willie Nelson, Frank Capra, or Tim Burton beat him to the punch.
At any rate, for us -- even if there are no longer any commercials for Dolly Madison snack cakes and that wicked intro CBS used to have -- this is what Christmas is all about. Happy holidays, everybody!
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RIP, "Peanuts" Animator Bill Melendez
