Rent A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

Good Grief, It's Christmas - A Charlie Brown Christmas review by griggs

I must have seen A Charlie Brown Christmas as a kid, because half of it felt like déjà vu: the drooping little tree, the jazzy piano, that odd mix of sulkiness and sincerity. Coming back to it now, it’s striking how small and low-key it is. No spectacle, no sugar rush – just a gloomy eight-year-old wandering around asking what the point of any of this is.

Charlie Brown mopes, Lucy monetises, Snoopy decorates like he’s auditioning for Vegas, and somewhere in the middle the special admits that Christmas can feel hollow even when you’re doing it “right”. The moment when the kids quietly rally round the world’s most pathetic tree still works.

The Bible reading may feel heavy-handed if you’re allergic to that sort of thing, but there’s a real gentleness in how it’s done. What lingers now isn’t the sermon anyway; it’s the mood. Simple drawings, melancholy jazz, and the comforting thought that feeling out of step with enforced cheer is pretty universal.