ReThink Review: A Charlie Brown Christmas -- the True Spirit of Christmas, Free of Charge

If you're like most Christmas-celebrating Americans, this week finds you frantically searching for last-minute gifts. Maybe you procrastinated, your schedule was thrown off by the big east coast blizzard, someone slipped your mind, or you were guilted into it when someone you had deemed un-giftworthy unexpectedly got you something. Whatever it was, last-minute shopping is stressful and generally no fun -- and you still have to wrap those suckers and make sure they get delivered on time.

But what do presents and the materialism/consumerism they encourage really have to do with Christmas? That's the question vexing Charlie Brown in A Charlie Brown Christmas, the 1965 holiday classic that boldly (yet gently) addresses the emotional and spiritual effects of the ever-increasing commercialization of Christmas.

See my ReThink Review of A Charlie Brown Christmas below.

If you'd like to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas in its entirety (and you really should), you can watch it free on Hulu until January 1, 2010.

(Note that Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales, which was first aired in 2002 and follows this video, isn't voiced by children, says nothing about commercialism or Charlie Brown's holiday blues, and generally sucks.)

Of course, if you'd rather just skip to the Peanuts gang dancing, here it is.

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Comments

[wkitwizard]

The cartoon message is clear and simple: be thankful for what you have, and appreciate it. The presents, stress and glitz overshadows the very real meaning: a free gift was given over two thousand Christmas evenings ago. If you don't stop and take a deep breath to appreciate that, you've become a victim of the commercialism that always kills the true meaning of the season. Your choice.

[daffey]

Amen. Our favorite. And it’s funny, but in my younger days, I was a proud agnostic. Not hostile or anything (I was of the school that didn't see religion as dumb and evil - being a history major an all), but still, I didn't believe. Yet this one always got me. Made me think. Not to mention that it hits the nostalgia button at least a million times in rapid succession (our old Junior High auditorium was a carbon copy of the Peanut gang's). But it was also well written, a great build up, some super symbolism (Linus willingly drops his blanket when he quotes 'Fear not'), and let's not forget the music! All in all, one of the greats. Head and shoulders above most other attempts.