It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown (1992)

I initially thought I might have seen a little bit of this on TV some time in the 2000's but, more than likely, I think what I actually saw was Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales, as this hasn't been aired since before the annual Peanuts specials moved from CBS to ABC. Regardless, I've known for a long time that there are other Christmas-related Peanuts specials besides the classic one that started it all, but it wasn't until just a couple of weeks ago that I actually tracked them down to watch. Since I always like to put up at least one review for Christmas, and I've already done both A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Garfield Christmas Special, I figured now would be the perfect time for this. This was the first Christmas-themed special to be made since the original in 1965 and also marked the end of an era, as it was the last of them to premiere on CBS (the next one, 1994's You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown, debuted on NBC and after that, there wouldn't another one made for television until 2002), so it does have some historical importance, despite being one of the specials that few have heard of. Going into it, I wasn't expecting it to be anywhere near the level of some of the classics of the 60's and 70's or to have the same emotional weight as A Charlie Brown Christmas, but I also didn't expect it to be so scattered and utterly unremarkable either. This special not only has virtually nothing in the way of a story, as it's cobbled together from a number of different plots and vignettes from the comic strip, but there's also nothing that makes it stand out for any significant reason, good or bad, and, save for the last third of it, it's not all that funny either.

Like I said, there is no one story that makes up this special; instead, it's a number of minor episodes strung together with no through-line other than the Christmas holiday. These include: Charlie Brown going around town, trying to sell Christmas wreaths, even though it's not even Thanksgiving yet at that time; Peppermint Patty not liking the idea of having to read a book over Christmas vacation and her and Marcie attending a performance of Handel's Messiah, which Patty writes about at school the next day; Snoopy acting as a sidewalk Santa; Charlie Brown and Linus trying to explain to Sally the true meaning of Christmas but getting nowhere with it; Charlie Brown attempting to scrounge up the $25 necessary to buy Peggy Jean a pair of gloves as a present; and, save for Charlie Brown and Linus, the kids participating in a Christmas play, which involves Patty stuck with playing a sheep and Sally as angel with one line that she, inevitably, manages to foul up.

Despite being in his mid-70's by this point, Bill Melendez continued to direct not only most of the Peanut specials, including this one, but, that same year, he also co-directed Frosty Returns, the "sort of" sequel to the Rankin-Bass classic from the 60's. He was still an active producer on both those he did direct and those he didn't, and the switch from made-for-television to direct-to-video was hardly a factor to him in that regard. It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown would be far from one of his last projects, as he would keep on working on both animated specials and even Peanuts-related video games, right up to his final years in the late 2000's.

Charlie Brown (voiced by Jamie E. Smith) is the focus of only a couple of the vignettes in this special and, in both, he has his usual run of bad luck. In the opening, he's attempting to sell Christmas wreaths door-to-door but keeps running into problems: people either call him out on it not even being Thanksgiving yet, slam the door in his face, take a wreath as a "free sample," or, in the case of Franklin, admonish him for adding to the over-commercialization of the holiday. Apparently, Charlie Brown's attitude towards that latter idea has changed significantly, as when Franklin asks him if he doesn't get that that's what he's doing, he answers, "Not until I sell one." Sally tries to help him but she ends up making things worse, first by exaggerating the quality of the wreaths and then being brutally honest about them when Charlie Brown gets onto her for her lying. Later on, Charlie Brown tries to buy Peggy Jean a pair of gloves as a present but, unfortunately for him, they cost $25, which he doesn't have. He goes through all sorts of trouble, selling his Joe Garagiola signed baseball and massive comic book collection (neither of which the local kids are impressed with), and does manage to get the money... only to then find that Peggy Jean has bought herself a pair of gloves. Not wanting to waste the gloves, he ends up giving them to Snoopy. In the other stories, he attempts to teach Sally the true meaning of Christmas, to no avail, and listens to her practice her lines when she's cast as an angel in the school play. He's there for the performance, but leaves after she blurts out "hockey stick" rather than,"Hark!", as she was supposed to and embarrasses herself badly.

Despite her brother now being a bit more amiable to the idea of commercializing Christmas, Sally (voiced by Mindy Ann Martin) is still the one of the two who doesn't know the true meaning of the holiday. When she offers to help Charlie Brown with selling the wreaths, she initially tries to do so by lying, telling a potential customer that the wreaths, "Were made from the famous forests of Lebanon." But, when he admonishes her for it, she decides to be brutally honest at the next house, asking the potential customer, "Would you like to buy a Christmas wreath made from some junky old branches my brother found in a Christmas tree lot? You wouldn't, would you? I can't say I blame you." She then decides the wreaths need better packaging and attempts to sell them by bringing Snoopy along and hanging them on his nose. Later, Sally is writing a theme for English class about the true meaning of Christmas and makes her feelings about it very clear, as she writes that it's all about getting stuff, that, "Christmas is getting all you can get while the getting is good." Charlie Brown tries to tell her that she means "giving" but she continually blows him off whenever he brings it up. She then makes out a Christmas list for Santa Claus and, after admitting she doesn't know how to spell her own brother's name and puts down "Sam" because she knows how to spell that, she decides instead to write to Mrs. Claus, whom Charlie Brown tells her is sometimes referred to as Mary Christmas. Linus later tries to read to her the story of Christmas from the book of Luke but, every time he tries, she ignores him and rattles on about having to shop for her brother. Eventually, Linus gives up and Sally wonders, "Is that it? I always thought the Christmas story was longer than that." Despite his better judgement, Linus continues trying to educate Sally after she complains about not understanding the song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, but gets nowhere with that as well. Finally, she's cast as an angel in the school play and feels she only has to say the line, "Hark," after which "Harold Angel" is to sing. She repeatedly rehearses and memorizes her line, right up to her moment in the play, only to say "hockey stick" and send the audience into hysterics with laughter and getting everyone in the play angry at her.

Peppermint Patty (voiced by Phillip Lucier) and Marcie (voiced by Lindsay Benesh) are the focus of the first story told after the credits. Patty is aggravated with having to read a book over Christmas vacation and, after calling Charlie Brown for suggestions about how to get out of it, she thinks she's managed to do so by watching a movie version of A Tale of Two Cities on TV. However, she then says, "The only parts I didn't understand were the parts about the shampoo, soap, and the coffee," with Marcie informing her, "Those were the commercials, sir." In trying to get out of reading, Patty tells Marcie that her grandfather once told her that her head would fall off if she read too much, prompting Marcie to hold onto her head while she reads, and then, she builds a snowman, saying that if she doesn't, no one else will and he deserves the right to be given life. Later, Patty has forgotten which vacation is coming up, as she now thinks it's Thanksgiving, and when Marcie sets her straight, Patty wonders how she's supposed to read one book when she can't remember the one she read for Thanksgiving, to which Marcie says, "Duck, sir. Easter is coming." After that, the two of them attend a performance of Handel's Messiah, during which Marcie stands with everyone else during the hallelujah chorus, only to end up folded up in the seat, with her feet sticking out behind the cushion. The next day at school, Patty is writing about the performance, only to learn that neither she nor Marcie know what Handel's first name was. Taking a guess, Patty puts down "Joe Handel." When the school play rolls around, Patty opts to star as the Virgin Mary, only to ignore Marcie when she tells her that she's already been cast in the role and to learn about it in class from the teacher. As if she weren't already irked, she then finds out that she has to be a sheep, and later takes it out on Charlie Brown, calling him to ask if Mary ever wore glasses and getting mad when he doesn't know what Mary she's referring to, making him wish he could be a wrong number for once. While Marcie does okay in her role, Patty is a complete mess in her sheep costume, both before and during the play: tripping over a curb on the way over to the theater, bleating so loudly during a scene between Marcie and Franklin that the latter can't hear her, and, like Sally, blowing her "lines" and barking and meowing, causing the audience to burst out laughing.

Those are the members of the Peanuts gang who have the most to do; everyone else's roles are either little more than small, incidental parts or cameos. Linus (voiced by John Christian Graas) appears at very beginning when he tries to get Sally to go sledding with him in a box down a snow-covered hillside, only for her to decide against it and cause him to fall over in it. He tries it again, only to fall backwards instead of going forwards, and when he finally gets it right, he goes careening down the hill and ends up crashing beside a small pine tree, the box landing atop it. As mentioned, Linus also attempts to teach Sally about the true meaning of Christmas a couple of times but gets nowhere with it, and he and Charlie Brown attend the play and witness her epic fail firsthand. Yeah, as you might have noticed, this is an instance of Linus not being completely aggravated and annoyed by Sally's presence, as he often is, even going as far as to walk her to the theater and eagerly wait for her moment. She, in turn, never fawns over him like usual. As for Lucy (voiced by Marnette Patterson), she has no role here at all. All she does is walk by and get annoyed by Snoopy when he's dressed up as a sidewalk Santa at one point, suggest to Charlie Brown that he should sell Snoopy when he's trying to scrounge up the money to buy Peggy Jean a gift, and, at the very end, attempt to force Linus to move out of a beanbag chair so she can sit in it, only for him to throw something she said before back at her, forcing her to stomp off in anger.

Franklin (voiced by Sean Mendelson) appears during the opening as one of Charlie Brown's potential customers for a wreath and tells him that he's adding to the over-commercialization of the holiday. He also appears in the Christmas play as Gabriel and has a scene with Marcie, only for Peppermint Patty to blot out Marcie's lines with her loud bleating. (Given that this special was produced right after It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown, I'm just glad Franklin didn't do any rapping.) Violet (voiced by Deanna Tello) appears a couple of times, initially as the first person Charlie Brown tries to sell a wreath to, only for her to tell him it's not even Thanksgiving yet, and in the one scene with Lucy and Snoopy. Deanna Tello also voices Patty, another would-be customer who tells Charlie Brown the same thing, and Peggy Jean, whom I'd never heard of until I watched this and, therefore, I was utterly confused by the idea of Charlie Brown actually being lucky in having a girlfriend. I also didn't think she was much of a girlfriend if she thought his name was "Browny Charles" but then, I read up that she appeared in the comic strip before and when Charlie Brown met her at summer camp, he was so flustered that he called himself that. I thought it was actually kind of interesting that they would keep continuity with a story that wasn't actually adapted into animation itself. And Frieda (voiced by Brittany M. Thornton) appears as a wreath customer who swipes the one wreath right out of Charlie Brown's hands, saying that she loves free samples.

Sad to say but, if you're diehard fans of them, you're not going to get your fill of Snoopy and Woodstock (voiced by Bill Melendez) here, as neither of them are focused on very much. In fact, Woodstock is never seen by himself but rather, with two or three other birds he's friends with, playing chamber music inside a snowman's hat and randomly dancing outside with Snoopy, using candy-canes from Charlie Brown's Christmas tree as actual canes. Snoopy, as I've already mentioned, also ends up having his nose used as a hanger for the wreaths by Sally and is also seen as a sidewalk Santa, who not only rings a bell but also has a small horn that toots loudly, much to Lucy's aggravation.

This is a prime example of something, Peanuts special or otherwise, that has no business existing, as it's just 23 minutes of virtually nothing. On a technical level, it's just fine. It looks good enough, with plenty of nicely-drawn, snow-covered exterior scenes, bright colors, and more than enough Christmas iconography, and being made in the 90's, it also sounds much better than many of the specials of the past, with the music being especially well-done. I also like how it touches on ideas such as the irritation of having to do schoolwork over a break and whatnot but, by the end of it, all you've done is watch a bunch of randomness with nothing to connect it other than the basic idea of Charlie Brown and the gang having a number of misadventures around Christmastime. There's nothing wrong with it having no real plot to speak of and just being a series of vignettes, as that can be used to describe a number of Peanuts-related material, but since there's no main plot that it's all hanging from, which you usually do get, you might find yourself wondering what the point of it all is. And as far as comedy goes, it's not all that funny, save for some moments during the play that do genuinely make me laugh, so it hardly can be called truly worthwhile in that regard, either. As usual, let's now go through it and see just how vapid and random it is.

When it begins, you see Linus pushing a cardboard box up a snowy hill, with Sally trailing behind him. Reaching the top, the two of them crawl into it and Linus tells Sally to lean forward and jiggle her feet so they can slide down the hill's other side. Sally, however, decides against it and crawls out, causing Linus to fall forward in the box and face-plant in the snow, to which she says, "If I'd have known you were only going that far, I would've stayed in." Linus then tries again by himself, pushing the box back up to the top of the hill and climbing in. He attempts to put it in "fast-forward" but it slides backwards this time and overturns on top of him. The third time he tries it, he manages to go bounding down the hill's right side but it ends up out of control and crashes at the bottom, the box landing on top of a small tree there. Lucy and Sally are standing there and Lucy, ignoring the fact that her brother just almost killed himself, comments, "I think they look better when they have a little star or an angel on top." It then switches to Charlie Brown, as he goes around trying to sell wreaths door to door. He first goes to Violet, who tells him that it's not even Thanksgiving yet and says that, by the time Christmas comes around, the needles will be falling off. Charlie Brown's advice? "Don't hang it near the turkey." He gets the same reaction when he tries to sell one to Patty, asking her if she'd like to buy a "Thanksgiving wreath" instead. After Franklin briefly lectures him about adding to the over-commercialization of Christmas and Frieda takes one of his wreaths as a "sample," Charlie Brown laments that nobody has a harder time than him selling the wreaths, with the next person whose house he visits slamming the door on him with enough force to send him hurtling backwards into the snow. That's when Sally, who thinks he's going after those "big holiday bucks" lends her help. That leads to her trying to sell the wreaths with an outrageous lie, saying they're made from the forests of Lebanon and adding, "If you buy two, we'll throw in an autographed photo of King Solomon." Of course, after Charlie Brown gets onto her for this, Sally decides to be brutally honest about the wreaths at the next house, and when the door is slammed in their faces, she tells him, "See? Your way doesn't work either!" Following that, Sally decides that the wreaths need better packaging and ways to show them off, so she brings Snoopy with her to hang them on his big nose. After that, there's a moment where Linus passes by a snowman, when he hears what sounds like chamber music emitting from it, though he's unable to find where it's coming from. It turns out to be Woodstock, who's under the snowman's hat, and that leads into the opening credits.

After the credits, we get into the story with Peppermint Patty and her not liking having to read a book during Christmas vacation. She first complains about it to Charlie Brown over the phone, asking him if he knows how to get out of it, and then, she thinks she doesn't have to read the book, A Tale of Two Cities, because she just saw a movie of it on TV, though she thought the commercials were part of it. She tells Marcie that she's afraid to read because her grandfather said that her head would fall off if she read too much and Marcie offers to hold her head from behind while she reads. She proceeds to procrastinate further by building a snowman outside, with Marcie telling her she's weird for going on about how, as the snowman's creator, it's her duty to bring him to life. Finally, Patty randomly now thinks it's Thanksgiving vacation rather than Christmas and frets about she can read something for the latter when she doesn't remember what she read for the former. We're not done with her and Marcie yet, though, as they're then attending a performance of George Handel's Messiah, with Marcie telling Patty that everyone stands during the section with the hallelujah chorus. Come that time, everyone is standing and Marcie does the same, standing on her seat, only to get caught up in the seat when the cushion flops back on her. Patty grumbles about how Marcie always embarrasses her, no matter where they go. The next day at school, Patty is writing about the performance, when she asks Marcie about Handel's first name. Marcie admits that she doesn't know it, forcing Patty to guess, and she decides to refer to him as "Joe Handel." Following that, we see Snoopy dressed up as Santa Claus, ringing his bell like he's collecting for the needy. Lucy and Violet walk by him, the former complaining how they're going to have to listen to the bell every time they walk by, while Violet wonders if he could make some other noise. Snoopy does just that, as he pulls out a toot-horn and squeezes it. Lucy comes back by, this time with Linus, and tells her brother to ignore Snoopy, when he toots at them and causes them to tumble into each other in surprise. Lucy then storms up to Snoopy and accuses him of not being a real Santa, which he retorts by shoving the tooter in her face. She walks away, and Snoopy is now confronted by Sally, who also accuses him of not being real. She asks him where all of his helpers are and then, Woodstock and two of his friends walk by, each carrying a sign that reads "HELP." Sally responds to this with, "That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen!" Linus, once again, hears music coming from a snowman, and this time, he lifts the hat up to see Woodstock and three of his friends playing chamber music underneath.

Next, we have Sally writing her theme for English class on the true meaning of Christmas, only for Charlie Brown to see that she's writing about how it's all about the joy of getting. He tries to tell her that it's actually about "giving" but, both times, she ignores what he says, groaning, "Like, wow," the second time, prompting him to walk away. After that is the moment where Sally is making her Christmas list and, after her brother is stunned to learn she doesn't know how to spell his name, she quizzes him about Santa Claus and his wife, the latter of whom he tells her is sometimes called Mary Christmas. Sally decides to write to her instead, scribbling, "Congratulations on deciding to keep your own name." In the next scene, Snoopy takes a candy-cane from the tree and does a little number with it, twirling it like a cane and dancing. Sally notices that all of the tree's candy-canes are gone and Charlie Brown tells her to look outside. When she does, she sees Snoopy, Woodstock, and two other birds dancing with the candy-canes. Sally then asks Linus to tell her the origin of Christmas, saying she doesn't see what all the fuss is about, save for the notion of getting presents. Linus tries to read to her a passage from the second chapter of Luke (namely, the very one he recited on stage in A Charlie Brown Christmas) but, every time he starts reading, she cuts in, complaining about shopping, that she hasn't gotten Charlie Brown anything for Christmas yet, that she doesn't want to spend a lot of money, and she wonders if she could get him something for free. Linus collapses in the chair from exasperation and Sally comments on how she thought there was more to the story of Christmas. Following a fade to black, Sally is still with Linus, when they hear the Twelve Days of Christmas playing over the radio. Sally comments that she hates that song and asks Linus what a calling bird is. He tells her that it's a type of partridge and reads a passage from Samuel I alluding to its significance. Sally's response? "If I get socks again for Christmas this year, I'll go even more crazy!" Linus then tells her that he once read that Albert Schweitzer hated the idea of Christmas gifts because he didn't like having to write "thank you" notes, but Sally can asks is who Albert Schweitzer was. (Truth be told, I didn't know who that was, either.)

Charlie Brown is in a shop, asking about a pair of gloves for a girl he likes, but when he's told that the gloves would cost $25, he asks if he could buy just a thumb instead. At home, he talks to Sally about it, who accuses him of being a cheapskate and suggests he put it on his credit card. He tells her doesn't have one and Sally says, "So long, Peggy Jean." He then talks with Linus and Lucy about it, and while Linus tells him that Peggy Jean will like anything he gives her if she really likes him, Lucy chimes in with, "If you don't give her exactly what she's expecting, she'll hate you for the rest of your life." After showing her the gloves, Lucy suggests that Charlie Brown sell Snoopy, who blows a raspberry at her. Lucy then says, "I take it back. He's probably only worth 50 cents." Unable to get the money, Charlie Brown is content with just standing and looking at them in their glass case, only to be told that he's fogging up the glass. He then tries to sell his baseball that's signed by Joe Garagiola, only for the kids to show up at his booth to ask if it's the bus stop, if they can get change for a dime, and if he has a Billy Jean King autograph instead. Next, he decides to sell his comic book collection, which is quite extensive, and still, a would-be customer asks, "Are these all you have?" Despite these setbacks, Charlie Brown manages to get the $25 and is about to buy the gloves, when Peggy Jean shows up and shows him a new pair of gloves she just bought for herself, much to his dismay. He later tells Linus what happened and that he decided not to give her something she already had; he gave them to Snoopy instead. (Side-not: I just realized that he hadn't yet bought the gloves when Peggy Jean showed him the ones she just bought for herself. Why would he have a reason to still buy those he was planning on getting for her?)

Now, we get to the last story, which revolves around the Christmas play, and for me, is where this special finally picks up after the chain of randomness it's been up to this point. It really makes me wish that the entire special had been this story, as seeing the Peanuts characters deal with memorizing lines, being forced into parts they're not crazy about, and completely messing up during the actual performance is much more entertaining than just about anything else we have here. Some would argue that making the play the focus of the entire special would be stepping on the toes of A Charlie Brown Christmas but, while the idea of their putting on a play was a big part of that story, it was also about so much more, whereas this could have been an opportunity to simply have some silly fun with this plot. Plus, we never got to see the actual play in that special but rather, just the rehearsal, so it could have easily been its own thing.

In class, Peppermint Patty mentions to Marcie that she's going to ask their teacher if she can play Mary in the upcoming Christmas play, completely ignoring Marcie telling her multiple times that the teacher has already asked her to play the part, instead going on about how great she would be. She only learns the situation when she asks the teacher and, incredulously, she exclaims, "Mary never wore glasses!" Later, at home, she calls Charlie Brown to ask him about it and, after getting irked when he doesn't know what Mary she's referring to, she complains about Marcie being able to play the part and that she's stuck playing a sheep, making Charlie Brown regret having ever picked up the phone. After that, Sally announces to her brother that she's going to be an angel in the play, telling him that she only has to say, "Hark!", and then, according to the script, Harold Angel will start to sing. She continuously memorizes and practices her line, dreading the possibility of forgetting it while out on stage. Charlie Brown suggests she could make up something if she did forget, but when she puts "hey" out there as a possible replacement, he tells her it's not very biblical. Finally, she asks him to look at the script while she recites her line one last time and he tells her that she has it, before heading out while wearing her angel wings. As she leaves, she tells her that he and Linus will be in the audience. (Incidentally, during all of these scenes between them, Charlie Brown is messing around with a hockey stick for apparently no reason. Keep that in mind when the play comes around.) While Linus walks Sally to the theater, she heads backstage when she gets there, and Linus and Charlie Brown take their seats, Marcie and Patty, dressed in her sorry-looking sheep costume, head there as well. Patty complains the whole way and trips and falls forward when they hit a curb. Marcie asks, "Slouching towards Bethlehem, huh, sir?", and Patty groans, "I can't stand it!"

Once at the theater, Patty frets about how she can't remember her lines, with Marcie telling her that all she has to do is go, "Baa!" Patty wonders if Laurence Olivier ever had trouble remembering his lines, while Sally keeps practicing her line of, "Hark!" The play starts and Marcie and Franklin head out to do their first scene, leaving Patty behind to continue complaining about being stuck playing a sheep. In the scene, Franklin, playing Gabriel, says his lines to Marcie, but when she goes to do her dialogue, Patty, who's suddenly in the scene, baas so loudly that Franklin then tells her, "I am Gabriel, Mary, and I couldn't hear you because of the sheep." They get plenty of applause for that, though, as the curtain draws back. Backstage, Patty is still fretting about not remembering her lines, with Marcie, again, having to tell her that she just has to go "baa." The next scene comes up and Marcie drags Patty out to the stage. She recites her line, "And there were shepherds in the field watching their flocks by night," but Patty gets so nervous, she forgets the type of animal she's supposed to be and blurts out, "Woof! Meow! Moo! Whatever." The audience erupts into laughter and Patty, completely embarrassed, sings, "And a partridge in a pear tree," as Marcie drags her offstage with her shepherd's cane. In the audience, Charlie Brown and Linus wait for Sally's part, and it comes after the dancing sheep (which are kept off-screen). Sally walks out onto the stage, stands in the spotlight, only to say, "Hockey stick!" instead of, "Hark!", despite the fact that she had been memorizing that one line repeatedly backstage. While everyone else laughs at her, Charlie Brown and Linus are utterly confused as to why she just said that.

Back at home, Sally can't over her massive goof, ranting to Charlie Brown, "I said 'hockey stick!' Why did I say 'hockey stick?' All I had to say was 'hark,' and I said 'hockey stick!' I ruined the whole Christmas play! Everybody hates me! Moses hates me, Luke hates me, the Apostles hate me! All fifty of them!" Charlie Brown is then talking on the phone with someone, telling them that he left after Sally's blunder, adding how she gets everything mixed up and that she thought someone named Harold Angel was going to sing. The doorbell rings and Charlie Brown answers it to find a red-haired kid standing outside. The kid says, "Hi. Is Sally home? My name is Harold Angel." Yes, I'm dead serious about that. The special ends with a random scene where Linus is watching TV while sitting in a beanbag chair and Lucy tries to make him move. They have this exchange: "Remember when we were siting around the Christmas tree, opening our presents? That's when you said it." "That's when I said what?" "It was beautiful. You said, 'Why do we have to be nice to each other only on Christmas? Why can't we be nice to each other every day?'" Lucy storms off in irritation, as Linus intones, "Joy to the world."

The best thing this special has going for it is the music, which is made up of new versions of some of Vince Guaraldi's classic themes, like Linus and Lucy and Christmastime is Here, done and arranged by David Benoit (it's actually the first time Guaraldi's music had been heard extensively since It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown, the last one he composed before his death). Benoit also comes up with some pieces of his own, including some subtle, instrumental versions of classic Christmas songs like Oh, Christmas Tree and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, as well as a very nice and festive jazz arrangement for the opening credits, which really sounds like something you would have expected Guaraldi himself to have composed. All of this material sounds very appropriate for a Peanuts cartoon set around this time of year, with the reworkings of the classic themes sounding better than they have in a long time, and you could easily find yourself listening to it by itself.

It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown is far from one of the worst Peanuts specials but it definitely ranks as one of the most unimpressive or memorable. While it looks and sounds good, especially in regards to the music, and the voice acting for the characters is pretty spot on, there's nothing about it that makes it stand out, as it's just a series of random scenarios and stories that are strung together, with the only constant factor being that they take place around Christmastime. Save for the story of the Christmas play at the end, which could have easily made up an entire cartoon in and of itself, it's not all that funny either, with some attempts at humor falling flat or making you go, "What?", like the Harold Angel gag at the end. All in all, it's completely harmless, and since it's only 23 minutes long, watching it will hardly put a big dent in your schedule, but I would only recommend it for the most diehard of Peanuts fans. You'd really be much better off sticking with the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas instead.