'A Charlie Brown Christmas' Premiered 60 Years Ago: Revisiting the 'Magic'

On December 9, 1965, nearly half the TV sets in the country were tuned to A Charlie Brown Christmas, where the gang from the popular comic strip Peanuts came to (animated) life. In the half-hour special, accompanied by that great jazzy soundtrack, hapless Charlie Brown has the holiday blues: “Instead of feeling happy, I feel sorta let down.” But one endearingly scraggly tree later, he discovers the true meaning of Christmas — and the show became a beloved seasonal staple. As Benjamin L. Clark, curator of the Charles M. Schulz Museum, tells Us: “It’s a Christmas miracle unto itself.” Scroll on