Is it because it so powerfully taps into that deep vein of melancholy Christmas can evoke, even -- or especially -- in the face of the culture's drumbeat insistence that we be jolly?
The words of the song (by Vince Guaraldi and Lee Mendelson) that opens the animated special are upbeat -- "Christmas Time is here/ Happiness and cheer/ Fun for all that children call/ Their favorite time of year" -- but the wistful, even mournful melody tells a different story.
Directed by Bill Melendez, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was scripted by the great Charles M. Schulz, creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip. Schulz understood that happiness and sadness can exist side-by-side, and that sometimes we will cross the border between them. It's complicated. When he published a compendium of "Peanuts" in 1967, Schulz titled it "Happiness Is a Sad Song."
In "A Charlie Brown Christmas," the beleaguered Everyman of the title has got a bad case of the blues. He's unable to get into the spirit of Christmas -- "I'm not happy. I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel" -- and he's appalled by the crass commercialization of the holiday.
So, hoping to find "the true meaning of Christmas," Charlie agrees to direct a holiday play that stars all the kids he knows. But they are an unruly bunch, and they keep bursting into dance, defying his attempts to impose some order on the rehearsal. When Charlie finds a scraggly little Christmas tree, he immediately identifies with that arboreal underdog. "I think it needs me," he says. But when he brings the tree to the rehearsal, he is showered with ridicule.
"A Charlie Brown Christmas" is streaming on Apple TV+, where nonsubscribers can watch the special free of charge this Saturday and Sunday. If you're a devotee of the strip, you'll find that "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is chockablock with familiar images.
Know-it-all Lucy in her psychiatrist's booth, doling out dubious advice to Charlie about how to cope with various phobias. A lordly Snoopy perusing a newspaper and eating bone snacks while lounging atop his doghouse. Schroeder solemnly playing Beethoven at the piano and getting annoyed at the constant interruptions by Lucy. Pigpen building a snowman who is, inevitably, as covered with dirt as his maker. Sally, Charlie's kid sister, imperiously dictating a letter to Santa Claus, replete with a long list of presents, to her exasperated brother.
And of course Linus, soulful Linus, the resident philosopher/theologian in the "Peanuts" gang, attired as a shepherd for the play.
He sucks his thumb and carries his security blanket everywhere he goes, but it is Linus who ultimately steps to center stage and, with a mixture of eloquence and confidence, spells out the true meaning of Christmas.