Peanuts join snowman-building leagues and criticize Charlie Brown when he insists on building his own snowmen without leagues or coaches. "Peanuts" touched on religious themes on many occasions, most notably the classic television special "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in 1965, which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible (Luke 2:8–14) to explain to Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about (in personal interviews, Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side). Because of the explicit religious material in "A Charlie Brown Christmas", many have interpreted Schulz' work as having a distinct Christian theme, though
True meaning of Christmas Brown Christmas", first aired in 1965 and repeated every year since. “That’s what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown”, says Linus, referring to the birth of Christ. Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" (1957) also illustrates the topos, and was very influential in the form of an animated TV special produced in 1966. The phrase and the associated moral became used as a trope in numerous Christmas films since the 1960s. The phrase found its way into the 2003 "Urbi et Orbi" address of Pope John Paul II, "The "crib" and the "tree": precious symbols, which hand down in