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
'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974 TV special) October 5, 2011. It is also available on iTunes for purchase. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974 TV special) Twas the Night Before Christmas is a 1974 animated Christmas television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions and based on the famous 1823 poem that opens with this line. The special first originally aired on CBS on December 8, 1974 where it aired annually until 1994, when The Family Channel (now Freeform) took over its syndication rights. AMC took over syndication rights for the special in 2018. Although the opening credits mention "told and sung by Joel Grey", it is really narrated