Peanuts specials. This came after Coca-Cola asked Mendelson if he had a Christmas special. He said "yes." The next day he called Schulz up and said they were making "A Charlie Brown Christmas". The animated version of "Peanuts" differs in some aspects from the strip. In the strip, adult voices are heard, though conversations are usually only depicted from the children's end. To translate this aspect to the animated medium, the sound of a trombone with a solotone mute (created by Vince Guaraldi played by Dean Hubbard) was used to simulate adult "voices." A more significant deviation from the strip was
Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo 1998 Christmas season. In addition to the title character, "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" included the first appearances of characters Father Maxi and Mr. Mackey. Both characters appeared in "Damien", which was produced before "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", but the Christmas episode aired first. Mr. Mackey was inspired by Parker's real-life school guidance counselor; Parker, who provides the voice for Mackey, said the real-life counselor was similarly thin and wiry and that Parker's voice for Mr. Mackey is an exact, unexaggerated version of how his counselor spoke. "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" includes several references to the "Peanuts" holiday