- I’ve been noticing this little tree on my morning walks, and it reminds me of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. I feel like it would tip over with the addition of a little red ball, and although I dislike 90% of the actual television program, I really resonate with the symbolism of the tree. I wrote back in December 2020 that sometimes we are the tree, sinking under the weight of the season and all the various performative pressures that are placed mainly on women in our society to create a certain jollity and magic. Sometimes, though, we are Linus’ blanket, seeing that our friends are bending under the symbolic red ornament and are ready to snap, and we wrap those friends in our metaphorical blankets, propping them up so that they are suddenly and somewhat improbably able to not only face the season, but they grow all new branches and stop dropping needles and are able to withstand the weight of not only that one red ornament but an entire treeful, including a star on top and many layers of tinsel. I aim to be a Linus’ blanket but I have definitely been the tree at times.
- I cannot watch that show anymore. I find it so incredibly mean-spirited generally. However, I really do like the railing against the commercialization of the holiday, despite the fact that I definitely purchase many gifts at this time of year and I always will. Who knew that 45 years after Charlie Brown Christmas and the complaint that Christmas had become too commercial, Tim Minchin would release what has become one of my favourite and most resonant Christmas songs, White Wine In The Sun, which includes one of my favourite song lyrics ever: I really like Christmas…And yes, I have all of the usual objections to consumerism, to the commercialization of an ancient religion, to the Westernization of a dead Palestinian, press-ganged into selling PlayStations and beer. But I still really like it. If that line does not resonate with you, please do us all a favour and simply skip it because you certainly will not like the rest of the song, and I really cannot face any more public loathing of my favourite holiday songs. I will not have it, people! I will not have my go-to-holiday-stress-cry-therapy song besmirched by anyone. So just don’t listen.
- Speaking of music, the Charlie Brown Christmas has, hands-down the best Christmas album in the history of time, in my humble opinion. Second to that is Michael Buble’s, and a distant third is Harry Connick Junior’s When My Heart Finds Christmas. I dare you to find three more uplifting and Holiday Spirit Consciousness Raising albums.
- I also really like Snoopy, and I strongly identify with the little dancing girl with the straight dark hair and the pink dress. That is my dancing style and also was my aesthetic back in the day.
- On the topic of Media I Consumed In My Childhood That Seemed Normal But Was Really Weird As Fuck, there was an animated movie I recall, entitled The Small One. It had to do with a donkey who was too old and frail to be of any use, and so the owner’s son had to take it to town and sell it. There was no question keeping it, as it would do nothing but eat without contributing at all to the household income. The man who offered to buy it – this is a bit fuzzy in my mind, but bear with me – was abusive and was going to essentially work the donkey until it died, and then use it for glue, like poor old Boxer from Animal Farm (RIP Boxer). Somehow either the donkey escaped or he didn’t, but he ended up in the hands of Joseph, to carry Mary to Bethlehem, showing that a seemingly-worthless animal can actually be a vital part of a most-worthy task. How a crippled old donkey could possibly carry an enormously pregnant woman on a long journey is a question no one asked, but also there is a lot to unpack here. This children’s program about animal abuse, the lack of choices for those experiencing extreme poverty, and the role of those deemed unworthy in our society was probably shown to me at Sunday School, although it could have been in regular school, the public school system not being so inclusive of other religions at the time. Another animated holiday movie I do remember clearly seeing at school had to do with aliens landing on earth and everyone being mean to them for being different, because symbolism needed to be heavy-handed back then. The movie climaxed with one of the neighbourhood children falling through ice on some kind of body of water, and the aliens helped to form a human/ alien chain to pull that child to safety. We are all one. I will not try to look up anything more about this, as I have had a lifelong phobia of aliens in media, the blame of which can be placed directly on E.T., but I clearly recall the grasping of hands and one of the local anti-alien bigots hesitating a moment before allowing his hand to be taken by an alien. Then everyone got anal probes. Just kidding! I believe it ended with the aliens leaving, which would seem to be going against the probable theme of welcoming people from other cultures, but again, it was the 80s. Things were different.
LOL, Nicole, you really had me there! I was like.. “WAIT, WTF?” what on your surprise ending to the aliens story!!!
I’m going to look up lots of stuff from this post esp. the Tim Minchin song and “The Little One.” Is it silly that I love that story? I love this trope, it reminds me a bit of the “Little Drummer Boy” and Anatole France’s “Le Jongleur de Notre Dame.”
The Little Drummer Boy is top of my list for that reason too – the poor boy with nothing but his drum. Ah, I just teared up thinking about it. Quick, let’s think about anal probes! Lol!
Do you enjoy pop style a-cappella specifically Pentatonix? Their version of Little Drummer Boy is my favorite of their Christmas songs.
Yes I love Pentatonix’ Little Drummer Boy! I love many of their songs – so good!
The 80s tho. Somehow they got us here. If I could have anything that my heart could imagine, it would be a two week time travel trip with my family. We’d spend one week hanging out in my childhood life and one week in my husband’s childhood life. The boys would get to experience Life Before Youtube and would be watching the mailbox each day waiting for the TV Guide to come in.
I adored Peanuts as a young ‘un but I cannot stand the Christmas show. The hubs watches it every year and I literally zone out because I cannot focus on it. Maybe this year I’ll be able to power through it.
The TV Guide! Ahhhhh! Yes. I was thinking about this recently, how did we find out about things before the internet? I guess we looked things up in the encyclopedia or on microfiche.
We watch A Charlie Brown Christmas every year. It’s Beth’s favorite (along with the Grinch). Because of the ending it’s actually kinder than some of the other Peanuts specials (like the Halloween one).
Speaking of tv and the 80s, we are watching Mixedish and while some things about it are spot on (for instance the music), in every episode some characters uses a phrase that’s more 2010s/2020s than 1980s and it drives me crazy. What drives North crazy is me saying “People didn’t say that in the 80s” several times per episode. I am actually starting to wonder if it’s on purpose because the show is narrated by the adult version of its adolescent protagonist, so maybe it’s supposed to have a contemporary gloss overlaying her memories. Or maybe I am overthinking this sitcom.
You know, I don’t remember the Halloween one. I remember the New Year’s one because I think he has to read War and Peace, and I think that’s when I learned that Sofia Tolstoy wrote all the drafts by hand. Wait, did I learn that then? I don’t know, life is a blur.
Lol if I was there with you North could be annoyed by both of us saying that, because I would not be able to help myself. It’s my biggest problem in any kind of historical fiction, even something like that, when there is modern dialogue in a period piece.
I love the kid picture of you! And yes, I can see what you’re saying about the girl dancing in the Charlie Brown Christmas. That’s my dancing style, too.
And yes, so many of my beloved-from-childhood holiday specials are dubious now. And I still kind of love them, but also I don’t have kids so I don’t have to worry that I am exposing them to these things. Let’s all laugh at Charlie Brown! Let’s hound Hermie and Rudolph out of the North Pole for being different! At least the Grinch has a positive message in the end.
Mind you, as an adult I can’t watch Frosty without wondering how Karen could identify a refrigerated boxcar on sight.
Oh jeez, that never occurred to me until you said it!
I really like The Grinch, maybe it’s his exploding heart, who knows. I love that message.
How did I not think of White Wine in the Sun when I was posting about favorite Christmas songs??? Probably because it is never played and not a popular song, but I hear by revise my list to include it and will put it as #1 favorite as well. I so relate to him being an atheist and loving the religious songs, because, um, yeah, that’s me.
I love a Charlie Brown Christmas, and yes, everyone is a jerk to him. Even Snoopy, his own dog, laughs at him when he brings the little tree in. Even Linus, who later claims to have never thought it was a bad tree, really. They are all assholes, just like Santa and Rudolphs own father are in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. (Until they need him and his red nose, of course. Then suddenly he’s the hero.) Christmas is complicated and problematic.
I’m not sure when we all collectively decided that the JOB of Christmas is women’s work. I feel like I was not a part of that decision, and yet for most years I have taken it on. I don’t want Christmas to feel like a job. I’m going to go easy this year and see if maybe it makes me feel better about the whole thing. So far, I neglected the tree, and somehow it magically got put up without me. I wonder what else I could neglect?
I love that song so much. I am absolutely NOT an atheist but that part about the songs really resonates with me too (it’s complicated, as you say!) Sometimes I cry as soon as I hear the opening chords, sometimes I last until “if you’re 9000 miles from home” but I always cry.
I learned about White Wine in the Summer Sun from you last year and now it’s integral to my holiday playlist! If someone isn’t touched by that song, I feel like they are missing key ingredients in humanity.
Did you ever watch the television show Alien Nation? Aliens have landed on Earth and it follows a police detective and his alien partner and it’s all about assimilation and appropriation and I remember it made me think long and hard about some of these questions (I was YOUNG – it came out in 89-90, so I was roughly 10-12). I have since wondered if that tv show holds up, but I absolutely refuse to watch it again. Because what if it’s BAD?
(Also, I know I’ve said this before, but solidarity in E.T. trauma.)
Oh good lord, I have never seen that show and now I’m scared I will accidentally see some of it! Too scary, too scary!
E.T. is so dark and scary and AN ALIEN COULD BE HIDING IN YOUR STUFFED ANIMALS AIEEEEEEEEEEEE
THIS WAS A WILD RIDE, NICOLE. I love love love your analogy of the tree and Linus’s blanket. It’s been a few decades since I’ve watched A Charlie Brown Christmas and I think I will make a point to watch it this year. While keeping the mean-spiritedness in mind.
The 80s were so different. The media we consumed was… a lot. (And we have probably commiserated about ET before but I HATE that movie so much. So very much.)
I think you’ll be surprised at how off-putting it is. Everyone is terribly mean on that show, but the music is fantastic.
E.T. is TERRIFYING!!!
I’ve never seen E.T. and I hope to never see it.
Nicole, you (and some other incredible bloggers) HAVE BEEN MY BLANKET THIS YEAR. I felt so seen when I read that first paragraph and I was like: Is she writing this just for me?! <3
I'm not sure my branches are sturdy enough for very many ornaments, and the star on top might be a stretch for 2023, but I feel SO. MUCH. STRONGER than I did even a few months ago and I know a huge part of that is the support I've gotten from my bloggy community in the midst of a mindf- of a year.
(P.S. I ate a good portion of my Reese's snowman while I read this post…while listening to Harry Connick Jr's album :))
Awww I will always be here to be your blanket! xoxoxo
(sort of envious you have never seen E.T., I have never seen it all the way through because I always flip out a little).
I had no idea people thought Charlie Brown Christmas was mean spirited or disliked by so many? I mean, kids have always been the worst bullies of all, so it seemed pretty realistic to me. I just love the backstory to the whole show and the fact that it would never be made today, but is still shown (as far as I know?) on basic cable. It truly is some of the best Christmas music out there and I agree on Harry Connick, Jr., too!
What an adorable Christmas photo of you! You have a great memory for weird af media from childhood. The only thing I can remember that was bizarro is H.R. Pufnstuf. Only someone high as a kite could have come up with that crap!
Merry Christmas, my sweet friend! XO
I do vaguely remember HR Pufnstuf, and also, do you remember the old Saturday morning School House Rock? The hanker-for-a-hunka-cheese guy?
I guess I don’t like realism in my Christmas programs – maybe it’s why I love Elf? Who can say?
Your childhood photo is so cute! We could’ve been twins – I had that same hair cut! I haven’t seen the Charlie Brown Christmas in so long, I don’t even remember the plot or what was mean-spirited about it! But I do love the music as well. I don’t recognize the other shows you wrote about. Of course, we only had 3 TV channels back in the day! Ha! Ha!
The music is phenomenal and I love it!
That haircut! I had some kind of variation of it for my young life. So many bowl cuts.
I was already tremendously enjoying the recap and partial unpacking of the donkey show, and then I got to the part about E.T., and NICOLE, ME TOO, and do you remember how EVERYONE AROUND US was wearing E.T. shirts and getting E.T. backpacks/posters/TrapperKeepers and talking about how CUTE he was??? I felt as if I’d been dropped into an alternate dimension and nothing made any sense anymore.
We tried A Charlie Brown Christmas when the kids were little and have never watched it since. I had thought it would be tremendously nostalgic for me since I remember seeing it repeatedly in my childhood, but it definitely hits different now.
Swistle, I do remember that – and the stuffies, so many stuffies, just in case you wanted to cuddle with a creepy terrifying extraterrestrial. WHAT WAS HAPPENING. I DO remember everyone being in love with ET and “been dropped into an alternate dimension and nothing made sense anymore” really sums it up.
I loved Charlie Brown in my childhood but maybe that was because there were so few programs geared towards children? I don’t understand. It’s so MEAN.
Things were different. Charlie Brown specials can be very mean spirited. Especially Lucy. What a bitch. But those soundtracks are BOMB. I really do think Charles Schultz was ahead of his time, but he had to be mean because mean sells. Fuckin’ capitalism. I just used two swears in my comment. Oopsie. 🤣
I really love your tree analogy. I am always trying to be Linus’ blanket, and sometimes I just need to remember that I’m the tree. I’ll keep this in mind because I work better with visual aids.
I love that picture of you as a child. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if we all shared pictures of ourselves as children, it would change the way we talk to each other. We were all children. We were all playing with toys. We were all small. Be kind to one another. ❤️
Yes, Kari, I thought of you when I posted that photo! I feel the same way. I find putting a face to a name – child’s face, adult’s face, all faces – really increases our sense of connection (more selfies, please!)
The soundtracks are the bomb but “can’t you do anything right, Charlie Brown, you’re so stupid” just makes me never want to watch that ever again.
I love Charlie Brown Christmas and agree about the soundtrack being amazing. I am definitely the tree right now. I tested positive for Covid this morning. Sob. We. Can’t. Get. A. Break. I just hope and pray no one else gets it so it doesn’t impact our Christmas plans.
I am not familiar with the white wine in the sun song but it sounds right up my alley! I will check it out!
OH LISA NOOOOOOOO
My god you have had nothing but illness for months now! I can’t believe this! I hope that you recover quickly and totally and that NO ONE ELSE GETS IT.
I haven’t watched the Peanut’s Christmas in decades. I remember putting those cartoons on for the kids, so I could run to my closet and organize gifts, etc. I wasn’t in the mindset that there was so much bullying going on. It just felt like tradition. You do a great job of pointing out the ‘WTF was that’ – about those shows. It reminds me of how so many Disney movies are focused on a death, I’m looking at you Bambi.
I bust out laughing at Kari calling Lucy a bitch. So true, and yet – we all knew kids like this. How did we survive the 80’s? We weren’t even wearing seatbelts.
That is a really cute photo of you. I love that you identify with the girl in pink in the Charlie Brown show. So funny.
Bambi! Yes! And my kids and I were just talking about Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and my younger son was like “Hey, that is one good-looking corpse, I think I’ll make out with it.” I MEAN WHAT EVEN.
Nicole, your first paragraph was absolutely beautiful and made me tear up. I would like to think that I can be Linus’ blanket whenever possible.
Oh thank you Gigi – and I think you ARE the blanket!
A Cosmic Christmas!! They play it every years in a psychotronics Christmas Film event in Portland but I’m originally from Alberta so it makes sense that we both saw this Canadian classic in our weird youth. I freaked out when I rewatched it, all the memories.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Cosmic_Christmas
Oh my goodness THANK YOU! Sometimes you remember something and think “was that real, did I dream that?” and I am SO glad you also experienced such a weird Christmas movie! Togetherness!
….. Are you thinking of Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey? Where the donkey’s ears are too long and everyone makes fun of him, and his MOTHER DIES IN THE SNOW protecting him and then a cherub comes and leads him to Bethlehem and he ends up carrying Mary to the stable? Because that is MY FAVORITE. I make my family watch it every year. 🙂
No it isn’t that but now I just went down a Nestor related rabbit hole. How does his mother die in the snow, what snow? I am now a little obsessed and am going to try to watch it myself!
You’re so funny, Nicole. I haven’t watched A Charlie Brown Christmas in a while, but I use that dancing girl with the straight hair GIF a lot 🙂 The most cheerful dance!
https://tenor.com/view/dancing-peanuts-gif-14200212
I also want to be Linus’ blanket – if at all possible.
And yes, the 80s were different. No kidding. I do not recall that animated movie The Small One, but WTF. Haha. And aliens!
I feel like you and I are that dancing girl, San!
Yes, there are a lot of Christmas stories that involve people being incredibly mean to some poor, unfortunate creature (Rudolph also comes to mind.) It always bothers me that they are redeemed after they somehow prove their worth- like if the storm hadn’t happened and they needed Rudolph’s red nose to light the way, he would still be a total loser. But… I grew up with those. Charlie Brown, Rudolph, etc. The kids and I still watch them every Christmas.
i’m very sorry that I’m part of the group (if not the leader) publicly loathing THAT SONG, we don’t even need to name it. But we can definitely agree that the soundtrack to Charlie Brown is the best!
I think that’s exactly it – those specials (I grew up with them too, but have always hated the Rudolph one) go against everything I strongly believe in, that is, that we have to do something to prove we are worthy. I think it’s been drilled into our brains that we are not good enough until we do something specific, and I hate that.
That first paragraph is so beautifully written. I think you are Linus’s blanket for a lot of people, not just during Christmas but all throughout the year!
BABY NICOLE MY HEART CANNOT
Oh Stephany thank you! xoxoxo
My mother still talks about my nightmares after ET. And Bambi, omg, do not get me started.
Also? That song lyric makes no sense to me because I cannot figure out what music would go along with it. So guess who will be searching Apple music to see if she can find it and answer the question that will surely be tonight’s “why DON’T we wake up at 0115 and then stay awake? Fun for all!” middle of the night conundrum.
Bambi is terrifying on so many levels! So many! And I have never never made it through the whole of ET.