Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales (2002)

One time in the late 2000's, following the traditional airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas, I saw snippets of another, obviously modern, Christmas-related Peanuts cartoon, and if you'll recall from my review of It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown, I initially thought what I'd seen was some of that special. However, upon learning that one hadn't been reran since before ABC took over annually airing the specials from CBS after the millennium, I realized what I saw was probably Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales... and upon watching the whole thing for the first time, I'm sure of it. Made purely and simply to round out an hour-long time slot of an unedited airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas, there's not much to this, as it's barely 18 minutes long and is nothing more than a series of random vignettes revolving around the Peanuts characters caught up in yuletide situations and dilemmas, each focusing on one character in particular. Like most Peanuts specials, especially those centered around holidays, it is a very much pleasure to watch, with charming vocal performances, lovely visuals, and fairly funny and cute moments, but there's not much significant than can be said about it other than that.

The first tale has Snoopy attempting to get Lucy to skate with him in an upcoming show, before dressing up as a sidewalk Santa in order to raise money; the second has Linus attempting to get to know and send a Christmas card to a strange girl in his class who's always changing her name; the third has Sally humiliating herself when she gets Santa Claus' name wrong, and then acquiring a Christmas tree that simply falls down for her, much to the derision of the kid whose yard it was in; the fourth involves Lucy aggravating and needling Linus and Schroeder about getting her Christmas presents; and finally, Charlie Brown, after writing a Christmas card for the Little Red-Haired Girl, deals with Sally wanting to catch Santa in the act of visiting their house and other antics she pulls him into on Christmas Eve.

Probably because it wasn't that prestigious a special, Bill Melendez opted to merely produce Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales, leaving the directing duties to Larry Leichliter, who'd been involved with the Peanuts since You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown in 1975, where he worked as an animator. He went on to be an animator on other specials, like It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown, It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown, What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown!, and What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?, as well as on both Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!). He also worked on the first two Garfield specials, Here Comes Garfield and Garfield on the Town, as well as on a couple of Don Bluth's later films, specifically Rock-a-Doodle and A Troll in Central Park, and on the Aladdin TV series Disney produced. By the time he directed this, he'd already done episodes of Hey Arnold!, CatDog, and The Fairly OddParents, and he went on to co-direct Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown, I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown, and He's a Bully, Charlie Brown with Melendez. He's continued to work in animation since then, having directed episodes of Sofia the First and Adventure Time.

Although he appears at least once in all of the vignettes, Charlie Brown (voiced by Wesley Singerman) is never truly the center of any of them, including the last one, which is titled, "Merry Christmas from Charlie Brown." In the first story with Snoopy, he takes Snoopy to the sidewalk where he does his Santa Claus routine to make money... on a leash, which he mentions is embarrassing. He also encourages Snoopy to make friends with the cat next door, which, if you know anything about said cat, does not go well at all. Charlie Brown has a fairly big role in the story with Sally, who mistakenly thinks it's "Samantha Claus" rather than Santa, something he doesn't correct her on and which proves to be a big mistake, as Sally then comes home from school, angry he didn't tell her she was getting it wrong, she humiliated herself in front of the other kids. He also gets caught up in her dispute with a character simply called the "ugly kid," from whose yard she took a small tree that fell over, and he makes her consider taking the tree back when he suggests the kid may now not have a Christmas tree for himself. Finally, in the last story, Charlie Brown is seen writing a Christmas card list to the Little Red-Haired Girl, referring to himself as her "sweet babboo." When Linus, who'd just been called that by Sally, sees that, Charlie Brown admits it's a family nickname. That's the only bit that truly focuses on Charlie Brown himself, as the rest of that last vignette is more of him dealing with Sally, as she makes him watch for Santa Claus in the living room, asks him about the "visions of sugarplums" she's having, and breaking it to her that the toy bicycle he ordered for her doll set never came, having gone to the wrong place.

Snoopy's (voiced by Bill Melendez) main focus comes during the first tale. After skating around on a frozen pond, surreptitiously suggesting that Lucy make him her partner in an upcoming skating show, only to be rejected by and then crash into her while showing off, Snoopy has Charlie Brown take him to his job of acting as a sidewalk Santa. While there, he gets chewed out by Rerun, who accuses him of not bringing him any of his Christmas presents the previous year, and he, in turn, snaps back at him. He also plays Oh, Susanna on an accordion, but when he overhears Lucy comment that it's not very Christmasy, he starts playing Christmastime is Here instead. And at the end of his tale, he wakes up atop his doghouse to find himself covered with snow, and is then threatened by the vicious cat next door. Charlie Brown suggests he share some holiday spirit with the cat to make friends, but when Snoopy sits atop the doghouse, smiles, and waves at the cat, he gets swiped at, with the cat's claws slicing a tree-shaped chunk out of the side of his house. After that, in Sally's story, he's seen decorating the tree she gets, only to help her bring it back to the "ugly kid" and then have to haul it back to their house in order to redecorate it all over again. During the last tale, he's seen taking the cookies Sally laid out for Santa Claus while dressed in his suit, and he also gets a present from Lucy, of all people: a sweater, which, despite what Charlie Brown tells her, he's not too thrilled about having to wear. Woodstock also appears a couple of times: he's seen joining Snoopy during his sidewalk Santa duties and, at the very end, it's shown that he ended up with the toy bicycle Charlie Brown intended to get for Sally.

Speaking of Sally (voiced by Megan Taylor Harvey, whose performance is a bit too cartoonishly squeaky and cutesy for me), she, as I said, is technically the focus of a couple of the tales. In the one actually centered on her, she mentions how she's decided to get everyone paper airplanes for Christmas, before proceeding to write a letter to "Samantha Claus." Despite being taken aback by this, Charlie Brown, after Sally tells him she believes the white beard "Samantha Claus" has is just a disguise, goes along with it. Initially, Sally is about to ask for a bicycle for her brother... but when he asks if Samantha Claus goes "ho, ho, ho" or smiles daintily, she scratches out the suggestion. And then, when she gets home from school, she's angry at him for not telling her that it was Santa Claus, saying the kids at school laughed at her and melodramatically proclaims that her life has been totally ruined. But then, when she learns her brother is wrapping up her Christmas present, she immediately changes her attitude, saying Christmas is her favorite time of year. Following that, after she sends out some Christmas cards with images of a bunny dressed up as a shepherd and learns a little bit of the story of the wise-men from Linus, she goes out to "fall down" a Christmas tree, as she doesn't know how to cut one down. She's actually hoping one will fall down if she looks at it, and actually gets her wish when a little tree at the edge of a kid's yard does exactly that. However, the kid shows up at the Brown house later, demanding Sally give him back the tree, but she reminds him that he said she could have it if it fell down. Later, she asks Charlie Brown if she should take the tree back, insisting that she feels no regret over it... until he tells her the next day is Christmas Eve, insinuating that the kid may not have a tree now. She decides to take the little tree back, but the kid has a change of heart and so, she gets to keep it, though Snoopy now has to decorate it all over again. Later, in the story meant to center around Charlie Brown, she talks him into watching for Santa Claus with her and believes she does see him, though she's actually seeing Snoopy in his Santa outfit. She also tells Charlie Brown she's having visions of sugarplums dancing in her head, even though she doesn't know what sugarplums are and is relieved when he tells her they're just candy. It ends with her waking Charlie Brown to tell him Santa didn't leave him anything, only to then yell, "April Fool's," and to learn the toy bicycle he bought for her doll set went to the wrong address, i.e. Woodstock's.

In his story, Linus (voiced by Corey Padnos) is first seen writing letters to Santa Claus... but what he comes up with is very odd, as he first tells Santa he doesn't want anything for Christmas and suggests he bypass their house. When Lucy demands to know why he's writing that, he says he hopes Santa will find his attitude "peculiarly refreshing," but she insists he write another letter. Upon doing so, he first writes a letter asking Santa about the state and condition of his reindeer and sleigh, and then, after asking how Mrs. Claus is, suggests he send him his "catalogue" so he can decide what he wants for Christmas. After that, he deals with this weird girl in his class whom he wants to send a Christmas card to but she keeps changing her name and acts as if he's trying to pick her up when he asks for her home address. His outburst over her weirdness gets him sent to the principal's office but he does get her address... or so he thinks. Lucy tells him one of his cards got returned, as the address the girl gave him doesn't exist. He's irked by this but admits that he finds the girl strangely fascinating. Later, he gives Sally a brief rundown of the story of the wise-men and, in the final story with Charlie Brown, is helping him write a Christmas card for the Little Red-Haired Girl. Sally refers to Linus as her "sweet babboo," much to his consternation, and then, he gets all the more aggravated when he sees that Charlie Brown used that term in his card; Charlie Brown explains it's a family nickname.

After trying and failing to get Schroeder to be her partner for the skating show when she rebuffs Snoopy's offer, and being baffled by her brother's weird letters to Santa, Lucy's (voiced by Serena Berman) section starts with her being nice to Charlie Brown, saying it's the time of year when everyone should be kind to one another. But, when he asks why they couldn't just maintain that attitude all year long, Lucy grumbles, "What are you, some kind of fanatic or something?" She then spends the rest of her segment trying to get what Christmas presents she can from everyone. First, she aggravates Schroeder, saying, after he tosses away a list he gives her, that she's not going to ask him for anything because she knows he hates her, and when he says, "I've never said I hate you," she retorts, "Then buy me something!" Second, she attempts to write a letter to Santa Claus, at first trying to get Linus to write it for her but punches him out when he questions her sincerity and writes it herself. What she herself writes to Santa is so overly schmaltzy and sycophantic that it disgusts Linus. And then, when she starts needling Linus about getting her something, he manages to temporarily get her off his back by saying he wants her present to be a nice surprise. She next insists that the Bible says he has to get her a Christmas present, which he laughs off, but she then finds that the word "sister" is mentioned in the Bible and believes that means he must get her something. Near the end of the special, Lucy calls Charlie Brown and asks if she got the sweater she made for Snoopy. He tells her that he did and that Snoopy really likes it, which he obviously doesn't.

As noted, both Schroeder (voiced by Christopher Ryan Johnson) and Rerun (voiced by Tim Deters) make brief appearances here. Schroeder appears during the opening of the first tale, when Lucy tries to get him to be her partner in the upcoming show her skating club is putting on. Schroeder, who's playing hockey (which seems out of character to me), naturally turns her down, saying he wouldn't be caught dead in those "tippy-toe skates." Later, during Lucy's own segment, she, as usual, bugs him while he's playing his piano, specifically about getting her something for Christmas. He tosses away a list she gives him without missing a beat of his playing, and then gets

blasted across the room by her yelling that he should get her something when he admits he doesn't actually hate her. Rerun, seeming older than he's usually depicted, appears for a little bit during Snoopy's segment at the beginning, when he chastises him for forgetting to bring him anything for Christmas the year before. Snoopy angrily yells at him, sending him back to his home, where he tells Lucy when she asks that he and "Santa" didn't talk that much, as, "He seemed pretty busy."

There are a couple of one-off characters that appear here. One is simply called the "ugly kid" (voiced by Wesley Singerman), who looks a bit like Shermy and who acts hostile towards Sally when she takes an interest in a little tree in his yard. Incredulous at her believing that the tree could simply fall over, he tells her that if it does, she can have it. Sure enough, it does fall over for no reason, and Sally takes it, but the kid shows up at the Brown house later on, demanding she give it back. Sally doesn't budge and threatens to sic Snoopy on him if he doesn't leave (like that would happen), but after a talk with Charlie Brown, she decides it might be the right thing to give the tree back. She and Snoopy take the tree back to the kid's house to return it, but the kid has had a change of heart and allows her to keep it.

The oddest character is the girl (voiced by Lauren Schaffel) who, much to Linus' confusion and consternation, has a different name each day he sees her. She decides to call herself Jezebel that particular day, but changes it to Susan when Linus points out the name's negative origin and connotations. Besides her name-changing habit, she also randomly tells Linus that she's not sure if she likes him or not due to the way his hair looks, says he's a little old for her (even though they're both in elementary school) when he asks for her home address so he can send her a Christmas card, and when she does finally give him an address to send the card, not only does she give him a handful of other possible names for her, but the address ends up not being real. And yet, Linus can't help but continue to pursue her just because she's so bizarre.

There's not much to say about the technical aspects of Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales other than they're competent. Obviously, having been made in 2002, it's going to look and sound much better than A Charlie Brown Christmas, and the animation, while not amazing, is about par for the course in regards to what you should expect from these specials. Also, unlike It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown and the following year's I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown, which featured both selections of Vince Guaraldi's classic themes and new music and orchestrations, the music here is all recycled from past specials, particularly the familiar tunes from A Charlie Brown Christmas (although, hearing Christmastime Is Here

played on an accordion is rather unique). The one true bit of kudos I can give it is the way it's designed, particularly in how the exterior scenes set in the ice and snow look. The Peanuts specials have also managed to make those types of scenes and visuals come off very lovely, like pretty, old-fashioned Christmas cards, and this one is no exception, especially in those scenes set in the late afternoon, with the sky in the background being given a lovely, purple/blue color. Also, this special seems to be a bit brighter in how it looks than I Want a Dog for Christmas, making it just a tad bit more appealing to my eye, anyway.

At the beginning of the first vignette, "Happy Holidays from Snoopy," Snoopy is shown "skating" around on a frozen pond (I put skating in quotation marks, because he has no skates on his feet), along with Lucy, who mentions how her skating club is putting on a Christmas show and she wishes she had someone to skate with, specifically someone, "Who's handsome and graceful." Snoopy then skates around her, surreptitiously suggesting he be her partner, but Lucy isn't having it. Instead, she asks Schroeder, who's skating around with a hockey stick, but he shuts her down, saying, "We hockey players wouldn't be caught dead in a pair of those tippy-toe

skates," (seriously, does anyone else find it weird for the cultured, Beethoven-loving Schroeder to playing hockey?) Snoopy then skates in front of Lucy again, doing a couple of jumps and twirls in the air, only to then crash into her. She angrily admonishes him, saying there's not enough room on the pond for both of them, and he, in turn, licks her right across the face. Irked, she yanks his hat down over him and tells him to go home. He stumbles back to the Brown house, with Sally seeing him out the window and noting, "There's a stocking cap coming up the street!" Reaching his doghouse, Snoopy removes the cap and starts digging into the pile of junk that's

sitting just beyond the door. Sally, meanwhile, goes to Charlie Brown, who's sitting in a chair, reading a comic called Santa Claws, and hands him Snoopy's leash, saying he's all set. Charlie Brown groans about how he wishes Snoopy could get to wherever he's heading by himself and then, you see him walking Snoopy while the latter is dressed up as Santa Claus. While doing his job working the sidewalk as Santa, Snoopy then gets the visit from Rerun where the kid angrily admonishes him, "So, Mr. Fancy Claus, remember me? My name is Rerun. What happened to all the things you were going to bring me for Christmas last year? Kind of forgot, didn't you, huh? I don't suppose you'd care to explain, would you, huh?" But then, Snoopy angrily snaps back at Rerun, sending him back to his home, where he joins Lucy on the couch and tells her that he and "Santa" didn't talk about that much.

After that, Snoopy is shown still working the sidewalk, playing Oh, Susanna on an accordion, when Linus and Lucy walk past him, the latter mentioning how that tune isn't all that Christmasy. Hearing her, Snoopy switches to playing Christmastime is Here, with Woodstock popping his head up out of the donation box and whistling along with it. Then, in a moment similar to one that occured in Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, Snoopy wakes up atop his doghouse to find himself completely covered in snow. Jumping up and letting out an angry yell, he kicks the snow, only to apparently splash the mean cat next to door, who proceeds to emit an enraged screech, sending

Snoopy tumbling off the edge of the doghouse and onto Charlie Brown. Pulling him off, he suggests that Snoopy show the cat some holiday spirit, adding, "Maybe you can share a Christmas tree." He puts Snoopy back on top of the doghouse and he waves at the cat, only to get swiped at again. The cat's claws barely miss Snoopy, and when he sits back up, a Christmas tree-shaped chunk drops out of the side of the doghouse.

"Yuletide Greetings from Linus" starts with Linus writing a letter to Santa Claus, but, as Lucy watches from over his shoulder, it turns out to be a very unorthodox one: "Dear Santa Claus, how have you been? Please don't get the idea that I am writing because I want something. Nothing could be further from the truth. I want nothing. Spend your time elsewhere. Don't bother with me. I really mean it. If you want to skip our house this year, go right ahead. I won't be offended. Really, I won't." Completely dumbfounded by what her brother just wrote, Lucy takes the note and demands that he explain himself. After Linus says he hopes Santa will find his mindset refreshing in a strange

way, Lucy crumples the note up and tosses it aside, telling him to try again. So, he does: "Dear Santa Claus, how are all your reindeer? Are they well fed? Is your sleigh in good shape? Are the runners oiled? Then go, man... go!" This time, Linus himself decides this letter is too much and crumples it up and tosses it away. He then writes a third: "Dear Santa Claus, how have you been? How is your wife? I am not sure what I want for Christmas this year. Sometimes it is very hard to decide... Perhaps you should send me your catalogue." 

It then cuts to the kids at school, where Linus tells Charlie Brown of the new kid in his class who he kind of likes, though he mentions her bizarre habit of changing her name every day. Case in point, when she's first shown sitting behind Linus in class, the girl tells him her name for the day is Jezebel. Linus, however, informs her, "Jezebel was the evil wife of King Ahab in the Old Testament. In Second Kings, it says that her servants threw her out the window, and she landed on her head," and she immediately responds that her name is Susan instead. Linus then turns back around to pay attention to the teacher, when the girl says she's not sure yet if she likes him, adding, "You

have funny-looking hair." Linus turns around and glares at her, when the teacher then says something to him, causing his hair to suddenly stand on end, which the girl comments on. After that, Linus is writing a Christmas card list and asks for the girl's home address, leading to this bizarre response: "Aren't you kind of old for me?" Linus says, "I'm not asking you to marry me! I just want to send you a card." For that outburst, the next scene finds him sitting in front of the door to the principal's office, grumbling, "Joy to the world." The next day, the girl joins Linus while he's eating lunch, giving him a piece of paper she says contains

her address. When he asks about her name, she says, "Well, today I'm Lydia. Last week, I called myself Rebecca, but I also like Rachel." Linus decides, "I'll just put down 'her.'" Then, when he's at home, Lucy tells him one of his Christmas cards got returned, as there's no such address as the one he was given. He laments that the girl is going to drive him insane, but when Lucy asks him why he's bugging about her, he admits that he finds her fascinating.

Next, we have "Season's Greetings from Sally," which starts with Sally telling Charlie Brown that, this year, she's going to make paper airplanes for everybody. She proceeds to sail one through the air, whereupon it lands atop her brother's head. She tells him, "You're lucky. You got yours early." She's then seen writing a letter, but when Charlie Brown joins her at the table, he's surprised to see she's addressing it to "Samantha Claus." Sally tells him, "She's the fat lady with the reindeer who brings us Christmas presents," adding that the white beard is just a disguise. We then get the moment when she asks "Samantha Claus" to bring Charlie Brown a new bicycle... and immediately tells her to forget about it

when he makes a dumb joke. The next day, Sally comes home from school angry, asking Charlie Brown why he didn't correct her about it being "Santa Claus," and complains that everyone at school laughed at her, that she's now ruined herself for life and has nothing to live for. While she's whining, she notes that Charlie Brown is busy wrapping a bow around a present, and when he tells her he's wrapping her Christmas present, she immediately changes her tune. She sits down and comments that Christmas has always been her favorite time of year. She's next seen addressing Christmas cards, commenting that each one has a bunny dressed up as a shepherd, and when Charlie Brown merely stares at her before walking away,

she exclaims, "Don't say I'm not religious!" After that, she's talking with Linus, who tells her the story of the wise-men and how they found Bethlehem by following a star. Sally's query about this? "Who was the star?"

In the next scene, Charlie Brown finds Sally is putting on her coat and she explains she's going to "fall down a Christmas tree." He believes she means "cut down" but Sally says she doesn't know how to cut down a tree, adding that she's hoping the tree in question will just fall down when she looks at it. She then heads out the door, leaving her brother standing there, bewildered. Walking down the sidewalk, Sally comes upon a small tree at the edge of a yard. She walks up to it to get a better look, when the kid who lives at the house comes running at her, acting all pissy and asking if she's thinking about cutting the tree down. When Sally tells him what she told Charlie Brown, about hoping the tree simply falls down, he laughs,

saying she can have it if that happens. At that very moment, the tree does suddenly keel over onto the sidewalk and Sally exclaims, "I'll take it!" Later, the kid storms over to the Brown house and rings the doorbell. Charlie Brown answers the door and the kid demands that he let him speak to Sally, saying she stole the tree. Sally herself shows up and tells him what the kid said, adding that what happened was a Christmas miracle. Once Charlie Brown removes himself from the center of the argument, Sally tells the kid to go home, saying that she'll call the dog; cue a shot of Snoopy decorating the small tree. 

That night, Sally walks into Charlie Brown's bedroom and talks to him, saying she can't sleep and asks if he thinks she should give the tree back to the "ugly kid." She elaborates it's not because she feels guilty about taking the tree, but then, Charlie Brown tells her that the next day is Christmas Eve, insinuating that the kid may now not have a tree for the holiday. That makes Sally feel guilty and, the next day, she and Snoopy take the tree back to the kid's house. But, when the kid answers the doorbell, he's suddenly decided that a deal's a deal and allows her to keep it. She and Snoopy head back to their home, Sally telling him he's going to have to decorate it again. She and Charlie Brown are then shown doing so, as he tells

her, "Grandma says when she was little, she used to hang up her stocking on Christmas Eve, and then, when Christmas morning came, she'd run downstairs and find it filled with apples and oranges." Excited at hearing this, Sally rushes to her room and removes one of her socks from the drawer... which is really tiny. She grumbles, "I can see it now: three grapes." To compensate, she completely covers the fireplace with socks and hangs a bunch of Christmas cards up on the wall next to it.

"Peace on Earth from Lucy" starts with Lucy coming upon Charlie Brown on the street and being surprisingly nice to him, seeing that during this time of the year, they should put aside their differences and be kind. But, when he asks why they couldn't do that all year long, she accuses him of being a fanatic and storms off. After that, Lucy is sitting next to Linus, talking about how she feels like she has the true spirit of Christmas within her this particular year than ever before. Linus asks, "Why do you suppose that is?", and Lucy yells, "Because I said so, that's why!", sending him tumbling backwards. She's next seen leaning on Schroeder's piano, looking at a piece of paper

that she hands to him, saying it's a list of things he may want to give her. Without stopping his playing, he tosses the paper aside and Lucy says she doesn't want him to buy her anything, as she knows he hates her. When Schroeder says that he never said he hated, Lucy yells at him to buy her something. And then, she's sitting next to Linus, having him write down a letter she plans to send to Santa Claus. First, she decides to say, "My dear Mr. Claus," rather than, "Dear Santa Claus," but when Linus tells her that sounds a bit formal, she suggests, "Dearest Santa." After he jokes about her possibly starting it with, "Dear Chubby," she has him write down, "I have been perfect all year." He

makes the mistake of questioning her describing herself as "perfect" and gets slugged for it, leading her to go on to write the note herself (after declaring, "I have an opening here for a new secretary! Anyone care to apply?"). She writes, "Dear Santa Claus, just a little note before you take off. I always worry about you. I hope you are in good health. Please drive carefully. Have a good trip. Affectionately yours, Lucy Van Pelt (your friend)." She goes on to add, "P.S. Merry Christmas, Lucy (your very good friend)," and, as if that weren't enough, she then puts down, "XXXXXXXXX <-- KISSES." Linus responds to this with a disgusted, "Blech!"

Later, when Linus is watching TV, Lucy approaches him with a list of things she wants for Christmas but Linus immediately stops her by saying he wants his gift to her to be a surprise. Lucy is genuinely touched by this and sheds tears, intoning, "What a lovely, generous thought," and walks away, with Linus thinking he just got himself off the hook. But then, she's seen telling him that he has to get her a Christmas present because the Bible says so. Linus says she's bluffing and that the Bible says nothing about giving Christmas presents in general, adding, "You can't bluff an old theologian." Lucy goes and looks in the Bible, finds a part where the word "sister" is mentioned, and cites it as proof that she was right about his having to get her a Christmas present. Linus can only grumble, "Oh, good grief!" 

Finally, we have "Merry Christmas, from Charlie Brown," where he's first seen sitting at a table with Linus, asking him to help make a Christmas card for the Little Red-Haired Girl. Linus suggests he draw a tree, with hearts hanging on it, and then write something personal at the bottom. As he does, Linus gets aggravated when Sally comes up and refers to him as her "sweet babboo." After telling her for the billionth time that he's not, and commenting on how stupid that name is, he looks at the card Charlie Brown made. He finds he followed his instruction, but is taken aback when he sees that he addressed it, "To my sweet babboo," and as he glares at him, Charlie Brown sheepishly

admits how that's a family expression. Afterward, Charlie Brown notes how they should leave something for Santa under the tree and Sally, after suggesting some frozen broccoli, goes the usual route of leaving some cookies for him instead. She also decides to hide and watch to see if she can spot him. Later, as she and Charlie Brown hide behind a large couch, Sally gets excited after she peeks out and tells her brother that she saw Santa. Cut to Snoopy walking away with the cookies while dressed in his Santa suit from before, and Sally commenting, "But I never realized he was so short!" That night, Sally wakes up Charlie Brown

while he's in bed asleep, telling him she saw visions of sugarplums dancing while sleeping. She asks him what sugarplums are and when he tells her they're just little round pieces of candy, she's relieved, saying she thought she was totally losing her mind. Come Christmas morning, Sally wakes Charlie Brown by yelling, "Wake up! Santa Claus came last night and he didn't leave you anything!" Charlie Brown is initially shocked and surprised by this, until Sally exclaims, "April Fool!", and walks out of the room. He then gets a phone call from Lucy, who asks if Snoopy got the sweater she made for him. Charlie Brown says he did and tells

her that he was "wildly enthusiastic," but Snoopy's reveal when the camera pulls back shows that's not the case. And, finally, Charlie Brown tells Sally that he ordered a toy bicycle for her dolls but it never came and he thinks it went to the wrong house. Sally can only grumble that she hopes whoever got it is happy with it, and then, we see Woodstock excitedly riding the bike outside in the snow, while Snoopy can do nothing but facepalm. 

If you really like A Charlie Brown Christmas and want a little more Peanuts-related holiday fun, Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales should easily fill your quota. While it's a very thin little piece of animation, being only 18 minutes of random yuletide vignettes involving the Peanuts gang, with no original music, and not being much in the animation department, it's a delightful little special regardless. It's charming, sweet, the characters are all portrayed in very appealing ways, it's nice to look at, especially in the many exterior scenes in the snow, and, like that original 1966 special, it's likely to leave you with a nice, warm feeling afterward. In fact, between this, A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's Christmastime Again, and I Want a Dog for Christmas, you could easily have a nice night of Peanuts-oriented merriment. Something to consider come Christmas Eve or even the night of Christmas Day.