The program is composed of various storylines from the comic strip.[2] It was the first Christmas-themed Peanuts special since the inaugural A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965, though an episode of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show featured a new Christmas vignette in 1985.
This was the final new Peanuts animated special to air on CBS. The network cancelled all future animated specials, although they still aired in re-runs until 2000.
Plot
It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown is composed of several Christmas-themed storylines, all taken directly from the Peanuts comic strip:[3]
Linus van Pelt tries unsuccessfully to use a cardboard box as a sled.
Charlie Brown unsuccessfully tries to sell wreaths door-to-door before Thanksgiving. Franklin points out that Charlie Brown is adding to the commercialism of Christmas, but Charlie Brown disagrees "until I sell one." (Violet and the original Patty make cameos in this sketch, a rare 1990s appearance for the two.)
Peppermint Patty and Marcie attend a performance of Handel's Messiah. The following day at school, Peppermint Patty writes about the performance. Neither her nor Marcie know Handel's first name, so Peppermint Patty credits the piece to "Joe Handel."
Charlie Brown tries to explain the true meaning of Christmas to his sister Sally, who is convinced that the true meaning of Christmas is getting all we can get while the getting is good when she is writing a letter to Santa, but she tunes them out. She also writes to Mrs. Claus, Mary Christmas.
Snoopy, Woodstock and his friends dance with the candy canes that were on Charlie Brown's tree.
Sally goes to Linus's house for the meaning of Christmas and complains to Linus about calling birds in "The Twelve Days of Christmas". Linus tells Sally about Albert Schweitzer and how he does not like Christmas presents because he hated to write thank-you notes. Sally asks who Albert Schweitzer was.
Charlie Brown sells his entire comic book collection in order to buy Peggy Jean a nice pair of gloves, only to find that she has already bought a pair.
The kids participate in a Christmas play, where Marcie plays The Virgin Mary, Franklin gets the role of Gabriel, Peppermint Patty unwillingly plays a sheep, and Sally, who has to say the line "Hark!" in the same play to summon a herald angel, inadvertently yells "Hockey stick!". Later, Harold (herald) Angel drops by to visit Charlie Brown, looking for Sally.
Rather than having a new musical score composed for It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown, jazz composer Vince Guaraldi's musical scores were reused and performed by jazz pianist David Benoit. It was the first time Guaraldi's music had been used in a Peanuts special since It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown (1976).[4]
Guaraldi composed music scores for the first 16 Peanuts television specials and one feature film (A Boy Named Charlie Brown) before his death in February 1976.[5]
It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown was first shown on CBS on Friday, November 27, 1992 - the day after Thanksgiving - and was the last Peanuts special to have its television premiere on that network. The show received a 10.0 rating and was watched by about 9.3 million households.[6]
The special no longer airs on American television as both CBS and its successor Peanuts broadcaster, ABC, abandoned it in favor of other specials. In Canada, YTV still airs it as a standalone special as of 2012.
Home media
A VHS release was made available at Shell gas stations a few months prior to the TV airing, which would make this the first Peanuts special released directly to video.[7]
^Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 150. ISBN9781476672939.
^Lenburg, Jeff (2009). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons (3rd ed.). New York: Checkmark Books. p. 325. ISBN978-0-8160-6600-1.
