A Charlie Brown Christmas A Charlie Brown Christmas A Charlie Brown Christmas is a 1965 animated television special based on the comic strip "Peanuts", by Charles M. Schulz. Produced by Lee Mendelson and directed by Bill Melendez, the program made its debut on CBS on December 9, 1965. In the special, lead character Charlie Brown finds himself depressed despite the onset of the cheerful holiday season. Lucy suggests he direct a neighborhood Christmas play, but his best efforts are ignored and mocked by his peers. After Linus tells Charlie Brown about the true meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown cheers up, and the Peanuts gang
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