Plot: Charlie Brown feels depressed around Christmas and yearns to find some meaning in the holiday.
Breakdown:
Ambiance:
I think there must be something wrong with me, Elinus. AVAHS is here, but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel. I just don’t understand how I can discuss A Charlie Brown Christmas without saying anything that hasn’t already been said.
I like talking about Christmas specials on AVAHS, and watching Christmas specials and all that, but I’m still not happy. Every time I try to discuss this special, I just end up depressed.
Elinus: “Fiddle Twix, you’re the only person I know who can take a wonderful thing like AVAHS and turn it into a problem. Maybe Elucy’s right. Out of all the Fiddle Twixs in the world, you’re the Fiddle Twixiest.”
*Later, outside Fiddle Twix’s house*
Hellooooo in there!
……Rats! Nobody sent me a new comment today. I almost wish there were no AVAHS. I know nobody likes my blog. Why do I need to make a special series to emphasize it?
*Even later*
Elucy: “Alright, now, what seems to be your trouble?”
I’m depressed. I know I should be happy, but I’m not.
Elucy: “Well, as they say on the internet, you’re crashing out. I think we better pinpoint your fears. If we can find out what you’re afraid of, we can label it.
Are you afraid of responsibility? If you are, you have hypegiaphobia.”
Well….I mean yeah….
“How bout cats? If you’re afraid of cats, you have ailurophasia.”
I spend way too much time online to be afraid of cats. Also, isn’t that supposed to be “ailurophobia”?
“Yeah, Lucy got the term wrong. Funnily enough, the suffix “phasia” is usually used to describe speech disorders, so it’s a bit of an accidental joke that she misspoke there. Also, she’s like eight, so it makes sense if she didn’t get it right…..Are you afraid of staircases? If you are, you have climacaphobia.”
I’m not afraid of staircases, but I kinda hate them. Does that count?
“Hm…Maybe you have thalassophobia. This is fear of the ocean.”
You’re thinking of Markiplier.
“Or gephyro(pho)bia, which is a fear of crossing bridges. Or maybe you have pantophobia. Do you think you have pantophobia?”
What’s pantophobia?
“The fear of everything!”
THAT’S IT!
….I—Wait, I already knew that. I have generalized anxiety disorder.
Actually, Elucy, my trouble is AVAHS. I just don’t understand how I’m supposed to talk about A Charlie Brown Christmas when it’s already been spoken about so much. Instead of feeling happy about watching it for AVAHS, I feel sorta let down.
“Look, Fiddle Twix, what do you want?”
I….wait, why’d you say that? We just skipped a ton of scenes.
“Shhhhhhhhhhhhh…..we’re not doing the whole special. Just roll with it.”
Oh, okay…..Uh….*flips script pages* The proper mood! We need a review!
“Hey! Perhaps a review! An entertaining, meaningful, fun AI review!”
Okay! I’ll take Elinus with me. The rest of you….I….do something. We cut out all the play stuff.
Elucy: “Get the best AI review you can find, Fiddle Twix! Maybe one that’s loaded with inaccurate information!”
*At the review farm*
Elinus: “Hey, look. All these reviews are made up of bits and pieces from other people’s reviews….This really brings Christmas close to a person.”
Fantastic….
Elinus: “Gee, do people still write blog posts?”
This little empty Word document here seems to need a home.
Elinus: “I don’t know, Fiddle Twix. Remember what Elucy said? This doesn’t seem to fit the modern spirit.”
I don’t care. I’ll write a review on it, put in a few jokes, and it will just right for my blog. Besides, I think it needs me.
*LibreOffice crashes*
*later*
We’re back!
………..?
Violet: “Boy are you stupid, Fiddle Twix.”
Patty: “What kind of a review is that?”
Elucy: “You were supposed to get a good review! Can’t you even tell a good review from a poor one!?”
Violet: “I told ya she’d goof it up. She’s not the kind you can depend on to do anything right.”
Patty: “You’re hopeless, Fiddle Twix.”
Frieda: “Completely hopeless.”
Rats!….Also, you guys sure talk big when three of you are characters I’m sure no one reading this would even remember without visuals.
Patty: “Yes they would!”
Really? Do you want to ask my readers if they’re thinking I’m referencing Peppermint Patty right now?
Patty: “….No.”
I guess you were right, Elinus. I shouldn’t have tried to write my own review of this special. Everything I do turns into a disaster. I guess I really don’t know what I could ever say about A Charlie Brown Christmas. Isn’t there anyone who knows what I can say about A Charlie Brown Christmas!?
Elinus: “Sure, Fiddle Twix. I can be your mouthpiece.”
“Lights, please.”
“In 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas aired on CBS to over 15 million viewers. While the studio had no faith in it and likely wouldn’t have aired it at all if it weren’t already in the schedule, they unwittingly birthed a cultural phenomenon. Despite the slow pace, the simple story that was rushed together in four days, and the rough animation, generation after generation continues to adore it.
It’s so beloved that when Apple bought the rights to Peanuts in 2020, barring all the specials from airing anywhere but Apple TV+, over a quarter of a million fans banded together to petition Apple to allow the special to air on TV as it had every year since 1965. And they actually got the media giant to relent – they sponsored a special airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas on PBS, free of ads. Even though today the agreement isn’t in effect, officially ending its reign as the longest-running holiday special, handing over the title to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the special is so beloved that Apple allows users to view the special over the Christmas season during a brief one-day window on December 13th through the 14th.
There are many Christmas specials that have aired or otherwise been watched as holiday traditions for years on end. But many people feel A Charlie Brown Christmas hits differently. And that’s understandable for people of all ages.
Children like the other kid characters just enjoying their Christmas and seeing the festivities like ice skating, throwing snowballs, decorating, and putting on a Christmas play. They also like the heartwarming ending and the music.
For adults, most chalk it up to pure nostalgia for a special they very likely saw as a child. But it’s more than that. Adults can very easily relate to Charlie Brown in this special. As you get older, it’s easier and easier for the holiday spirit to leave you, especially when people around you tend to just talk about presents and materialistic stuff when Christmas is brought up. And, bear in mind, again, this special was made in 1965. So each generation acting as if their Christmases weren’t commercialized is just lying. You can definitely argue it’s gotten worse with every decade, but it’s still been a problem since even before this special came out.
Honestly, kids can relate to Charlie Brown as well. Whether it be because of their situation at home or some other problem, many kids also feel like they either don’t understand Christmas or it makes them sad.
If you are developing some holiday blues, you’ve probably also been on the wrong end of someone getting on your case about it. ‘Stop being depressed. It’s Christmas! You’re ruining the vibe.’
Trying to force yourself into just enjoying Christmas isn’t good for you. As much as it does sound like fodder for Christmas special writers, some people really do need to rediscover the holiday spirit. And what form that takes varies wildly from person to person. In this special, Linus recites a verse from the Bible to explain to Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about, which finally brightens his spirits and gets him back into the holiday.
But I’ve always been of the mind that the true way of getting back into the holiday spirit is just to remember that Christmas is what you make of it. You can have a present and decoration-free Christmas, and it can still feel like Christmas to you. Make your own traditions, spend time with loved ones, volunteer, or do something for you and you alone.
My parents say to me more every year that it doesn’t feel like Christmas. And they ask me every year if I feel the same. I love Christmas. I always have. But I will admit that Christmas has changed for me over the years as it has for anyone else.
I don’t visit family members anymore, most of my grandparents have passed away so I can’t spend Christmases at their houses anymore, I barely get any Christmas cards from relatives, I do most of the decorating (Which I love, don’t get me wrong), I stress out over paying for gifts, I stress out over having to wrap my gifts and the gifts my parents have for each other, I stress over ensuring my gifts get here on time, I get anxious navigating stores just trying to get groceries as it gets closer to Christmas, I feel guilty when I answer when someone asks me what I want for Christmas instead of excitedly jotting down a Christmas list, and, honestly, I’m starting to feel like I do about Halloween — I much more enjoy the days leading up to Christmas than the actual day.
If anything, I find Christmas day depressing because that means the Christmas season is over. No more decorations, no more Christmas music, wearing Christmas clothes steadily becomes sadder, no more excuses to eat candy, no more Christmas specials, no more pics from your friends showing them enjoying their own Christmases – nothing. Just New Year’s, which I hate, Valentine’s Day, which I hate, my birthday, which I really hate, and then basically nothing notable for everyone to celebrate until October.
But I try. I feel more and more like Charlie Brown every year. I want to be happy on Christmas. I love Christmas. But it’s so hard sometimes.
That’s why my second favorite part of this special is when Charlie Brown gets the Christmas tree. The little rinky-dink dying patheti-sad twig that Charlie Brown, and only Charlie Brown, believed in. Despite being excited about getting the director job, I feel like the first time he truly smiled in this special is when he saw the tree. Because it was a real, live, Christmas tree among a sea of trendy artificial aluminum trees.
He liked it, saw potential in it, and thought everyone else would like it, too. When he starts to feel a little better, he happily puts one decoration on the tree, and it proves to be too much weight for the poor thing to bear and flops over. Charlie Brown is devastated because he felt like this little tree was one good thing he enjoyed this Christmas and he “killed” it.
The other kids giving the care Charlie Brown wanted to give the tree to turn it into a beautiful, somehow having regrown limbs and needles, tree is my favorite part of the special. Because I feel like Linus’s line there resonates with me more. “Maybe it just needs a little love.” It’s simple, but I feel like that is a metaphor for Charlie Brown’s holiday spirit. Sure the anti-commercialism and the religious aspects are important to the story, but, at the end of the day, what truly lifted Charlie Brown’s spirits and got him fully back into the holiday spirit was his friends showing him some love and fixing the tree up for him.
And I think that’s also something that follows you throughout your life. If you’re having a rough holiday for whatever reason, just having someone there for you showing you love can revive your Christmas spirit. And, fittingly enough, many people do find this love and togetherness when they put on these Christmas specials during their own yearly rewatches.
That’s one of the bigger reasons why there was such an outcry to keep this special free to watch. It wasn’t to keep up a record or because people wanted to clutch onto nostalgia – it was ensuring that there was no paywall to something that has such massive meaning to so many people. Something that bonds families, friends, and teaches good lessons to kids in every generation. Something that only becomes more relevant to people the older they get.
I’m not going to sit here and say anything I’ve said about A Charlie Brown Christmas is new. It’s most likely not. And I have a difficult time reviewing things that so many people have already seen or talked about. But that’s not important.
What is important is to keep talking about things like this. Not just holiday specials, but anything you love or are passionate about. Spreading the positivity and the love to people who may need to hear it. I tend to have negative slants towards a lot of my posts in this blog, though I have been making strides to be less of a negative Nancy, but I think many of my more loyal readers understand that if I am truly miserable or uninterested watching something or if I hate it, I will just drop it. I won’t continue watching it.
Even in shows, manga, or movies where I have a lot of complaints, I still tend to have a lot of fun with them. Hell, look at my Pokémon reviews. I nitpick and complain so much in those reviews, but I honestly, to my core, love the anime and Pokémon as a whole. I even have a plushie of Pikachu, whom I sometimes refer to as Messiahchu.
I struggle a lot with depression and anxiety, and it sometimes affects my blog. For instance, AVAHS was late this year because I just couldn’t find the drive to get started, especially with this challenge as my first watch of the season. But AVAHS is important to me because I love holiday specials. I love the holidays. And I never want to let that die. Especially when things just seem to get harder for everyone year after year.
If I can spread some holiday cheer to others through brief reviews of classic or seldom-known holiday specials or a goofy parody of one of them, then I want to do that. I want to help keep the holiday spirits of others from suffering or dying.
I want to make A Charlie Brown Christmas proud. ”
*Elinus walks back*
“And that’s what you can say about A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
……*grabs Word document and walks off*
Elinus is right. I’m not going to let my holiday spirit be ruined. And AI can suck it in hell. I’m going to take this little document home and write a review on it. And I’ll show ‘em. It will get dozens of views!
*starts to walk away*
Okay, so I can’t think of a way to parody the ending of the special because, what, would the other kids write the review for me? To cheer me up? After I killed the review with…attempting to write it?…, so enjoy the Peanuts crew singing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!….And people not named Charlie Brown!
If my work makes you feel jolly and you’d like to send some Christmas cheer my way, please consider leaving a gift under my Ko-Fi tree. Every donation goes to helping me pay my bills and keeping this blog running like Santa’s Workshop. Thank you! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and have a Wonderful New Year! 🎄☃️
