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.
For more ReThink Reviews, the only (therefore best) political movie reviews anywhere, go to rethinkreviews.net.