Christmas is just around the corner and, of course, we’re still continuing Holiday-Palooza over here at 3rd World Geeks. Now, there have been a lot of children Christmas specials throughout the years. But I think it’s time we take a look at probably the originator of the Christmas special: A Charlie Brown Christmas.

It’s hard to imagine A Charlie Brown Christmas was released six whole decades ago this year as people still watch it even up to now. And yet, looking at it today, it’s not hard to believe at the same time. Although this is considered to be a holiday staple, there are definitely some things that show its age. But does it prevent it from being watchable by today’s children? And is it still good, despite being much older than the majority of viewers watching it today? Well, the best way is to actually go watch A Charlie Brown Christmas!

Oh, by the way, as A Charlie Brown Christmas has been out for 60 years now, I feel very comfortable in making this a SPOILER FILLED review. If you haven’t seen it yet… why not? It’s a venerable Christmas classic! Still, SPOILER FILLED review incoming!

A Charlie Brown Christmas features the Peanuts gang from the comic strip created by Charles M. Shultz. More specifically, it follows Charlie Brown who is feeling the holiday blues because of the feeling of how commercialism has become the focus of the season. Lucy advises him, to try to get into the Christmas spirit, to fill in as the director for the Christmas school play. This leads to Charlie Brown and Linus getting a sad looking real tree, despite the rest of the Peanuts gang wanting Charlie brown to get an artificial tree for the play. This leads to Charlie Brown falling into even more despair, wondering if anyone knows what Christmas is really all about anymore.

That above may seem like a brief summary of A Charlie Brown Christmas… but it actually summarizes a little more than half of the special’s 25 minute runtime! Yes, this is quite a short special and it does feel like it. That’s both a good thing and a no-so good thing. The overall plot and the actual message about Christmas being super commercialized does feel rather advanced, especially considering this was made way back in 1965. Heck, it feels even poignant even today!

Then again, a part of me wishes there was a little more focus on it as the special isn’t exactly focused on Charlie Brown’s dilemma. If you’re a nitpicker like me, you might complain about the entire play scenario. I mean, a good chunk of the special involves the Peanuts kids getting ready for… but they never really show the play in the end!

Also, it bounces around from quick gags of the kids talking among each other and doing kids stuff. Once again, that’s not a bad thing as it allows the Peanuts kids feel much more realized as characters. Not just as characters in an animated special but makes them feel like real-life children.

It certainly helps that, apparently, the voice actors they got for the special were just children as well. Not adult actors trying to sound like kids. Not child actors taking on the voice rolls. No, these were just regular children doing all of the voice work, with only the voice of Charlie Brown having a “professional” actor. You can definitely here it in the delivery in a lot of the lines. You may think this is a bad thing but I do feel it adds to the authenticity of the performances. They weren’t refined nor do they actually nail the tone needed for some of the lines. But it does sound like these kids were doing their best and it makes the special really charming.

The animation also helps in capturing all of this child-like energy. I’m actually impressed how they hardly used any recycled animation frames throughout the special’s 25-minute runtime. The only time they did reuse animation cells were the couple of dancing scenes. Then again, the dancing scenes were fun to watch as they made all of the Peanuts kids dance the way kids dance. While the animation is simplistic, there are bursts of creativity with Snoopy bouncing around as if he were made of putty.

One thing that may catch some present day viewers off-guard is Linus’ speech on what the true meaning of Christmas is. That’s because it’s one of the rare Christmas specials that actually focuses on religion. From what I’ve researched (as in I watched a YouTube video explaining some facts about the special), Charles M. Shultz had to have Linus recite Luke 2:8-14 to explain what Christmas means. This was a bold move, even then and especially now.

Now, I’m personally okay with it as, well, it is the reason why there’s a Christmas in the first place. I do understand Christmas is now more than just a Christian holiday and I’m also fine with that. I feel I have to mention this as, while it is probably the most important part of the special, some people today may get irked by this as, like I said, Christmas isn’t just for Christians anymore. I’m just saying it might alienate some viewers of today.

I do have to mention the music as it does a great job of setting the mood. The songs are never intrusive when the kids are talking and adds a lot of atmosphere to the scenes. However, I don’t really remember the music all that much… except for the song Linus and Lucy. It’s the only piece that really sticks out as it’s the most upbeat and snazziest of all of the songs.

With all of that being said, is A Charlie Brown Christmas still good? Mostly yes. They did a good job in upscaling the animation so it doesn’t look out of place today. More critical viewers and people who are Scrooges will probably dislike the “unprofessional” voices used but mostly everyone else will enjoy them. My only real issue with A Charlie Brown Christmas would actually be the more haphazard way the story was told. It’s still overshadowed by how good the overall message of how we shouldn’t allow commercialism take over the holiday. I say give it a watch.

Have you seen A Charlie Brown Christmas? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!