Yes, I’m American, born and bred. I have a warm heart and more Christmas spirit than perhaps Old Saint Nick himself (especially in The Year Without a Santa Claus where he is frustrated and thinks he needs a vacation; you work one night a year, dude — suck it up!)

So how, you ask, how could I hate A Charlie Brown Christmas? Well, I suppose you need to know that my loathing is not reserved for just the Christmas special; I hate all of the Charlie Brown specials; oh, don’t get me started on the Great Pumpkin one … but I digress.

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When you think of Peanuts in newspaper form, what comes to mind? Probably a comic strip that, when created, was heralded for its social commentary and barbs on current events. Originally running from 1950 to February 13, 2000 (one day after creator Charles Schultz’s death), Peanuts was one of the longest running series about one person — a round-headed, luckless boy — and the world around him.

Now, when you think of Peanuts on television what comes to mind? Why, holidays of course! From Christmas to Easter to Arbor Day, Charlie Brown and the gang have covered pretty much every major and minor holiday since first being animated for the small screen in the mid-1960s. The earliest ones have become holiday classics that are honored, imitated and broadcast somewhere around the world on a daily basis. The earliest of these, A Charlie Brown Christmas, gave us melodies and scenes that we still remember from our childhood. It also gave us a message, thanks to a little boy with a security blanket and a round-headed kid with a tiny, sickly Christmas tree, about the real meaning of the holiday.

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