Striving for a Charlie Brown Christmas

One of the top five descriptions I'd use to describe my paternal grandfather is that he loved Charles Shultz's Peanuts comic strip. As such, I remember watching a "Charlie Brown Christmas" at an early age. As a child, there's always that initial excitement of watching a cartoon, (especially at the grandparents ;)) but I distintively remember being disappointed. The plot didn't make sense, the animation was horrible, and the humor was over my head. And that was probably the last time I watched it in its entirety until this week. It is quite possibly the best seasonal movie I've ever seen. If my mere recommendation of it now has your interest peaked, I found it all on YouTube.

For the last three or four years Christmas has been a really hard time of year for me. I feel wound up and anxious and trying to think of twenty things twenty people can get me is frustrating and feels somehow wrong. The cartoon addresses this in its opening line -

"I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy. I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel. I just don't understand Christmas, I guess. I like getting presents and receiving Christmas cards, and decorating trees and all that, but I'm still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed."

Charlie Brown tries to busy himself with holiday activities in the form of directing a Christmas play. I wish they would have developed the story on this Christmas play since it included an inn keeper, a Christmas Queen, and easy jazz music... Charlie Brown takes his job very seriously and becomes a bit of a task masker - the rest of the kids just want to dance to the jazz. Charlie Brown then tries to make it better with the infamous "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" to which he is richly chastized. At his wits end, he cries out for someone, ANYONE, to explain the meaning of Christmas to which Linus gives his epic monologue:



I hope if you find yourself striving for things or activities this time of year, you slow down and remember the reason for the season. ;)