I’m nearing sixty years old. I watched the show the very first time it was on.
It’s still the best Christmas special ever. Heck, it’s the only one that talks about the REAL reason we have Christmas.
Not that I don’t like the Grinch, or Rudolph. Love them too. But Charley Brown is the best.
Wow. In the words of Charlie Brown himself, “THAT’S IT!” 
Not only do I remember watching it at the same time as you, I remember thinking “I’ll never forget this as long as I live.” It was magic then, and it is now.
Peanuts was in its heyday back in the mid-to-late '60s. There was an incredible amount of buildup to the special, and we all talked about it the next day in school. And yes, I still get choked up hearing Linus recite that passage from Luke.
If you knew how cynical I am in real life, you’d realize what an accomplishment that is!
Were we separated at birth? :eek: 
Maybe the original poster would like “A Huey Freeman Christmas”, the Christmas episode of “The Boondocks”.
It is sort of the anti-Charlie Brown Christmas. You don’t have to be familiar with The Boondocks to appreciate it. (“Quincy Jones can’t help you!”)
I love it AND “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.
To me, the sincerity of the thing is what makes it immortal.
I don’t watch it every year (though I do listen to the soundtrack), but in my opinion, if you are going to make the perfect Christmas special, distilled down to just the emotion and meaning of Christmas, don’t bother, because it’s already been done in the Peanuts’ special.
Also, everything that Sodalite said. (Jesus, you’ve basically got me weeping into my @$#% morning coffee . . . where did that joy of youth go?)
No Heat Miser and Snow Miser.
As a kid , I loved that Frosty brought balance to the force, but now as an adult and living in Ontario, I sorta find myself rooting for the heat miser now.
Declan
I’m with the OP. I’ve never liked any of the Peanuts stuff, not when I was a kid and not now. Charlie Brown was always a mopey whiny sad sack, Caillou’s granddad no doubt. The fact that there were never any adults around imbued it with a kind of Lord Of The Flies tension, such that when I later read said book, Peanuts is what came to mind. The music has some high points, but no matter in what format I’ve ever watched these shows (my daughter has them now on DVD and loves them; she watches CB Xmas year round), there’s always been a hissing white noise drone in the background, like the sound is coming over a radio that is not quite tuned.
A Xmas card I got a long, long time ago:
Big puddle of water with a top hat, some pieces of coal and a carrot in the middle, with a scarf draped around the puddle. The caption:
“Have a Merry Christmas! Frosty would have wanted it that way!”
One of the big reasons (IMO) that it worked so well is because it was the first time they used actual child voice actors to play the parts. Before that cartoons were always voiced by adults (usually just one man and woman) who merely performed ‘kid’ voices (it’s still done today). Consequently they’re very stilted and schticky sounding. Having actual children’s voices gave A Charlie Brown Christmas a very realistic, film noir, almost documentary feel which was revolutionary for the time (and still works today!)
I don’t really understand your topics about this sort of thing, sometimes.
It’s like being 35 and saying “What the hell? I just watched an episode of SESAME STREET and it was so boring and I didn’t find it worthwhile to watch at all! How did anyone ever watch and like this stuff?”
Dunno. Were you born 7 January 1955? 
OMG! No.
I was thinking about this the other day, and I remembered almost immediately that Charlie Brown was voiced by Peter Robbins (who played Alexander on the short-lived Blondie TV series), Lucy was Pamelyn Ferdin (recognizable in the '60s for her voluminous commercial work and guest role on ST:TOS), and Linus was a little guy named Chris Shea.
Several years later, Charles Schulz was a guest on the Merv Griffin Show (I was watching that night) and said it was Chris’s voice that made the early specials particularly memorable. He was very disappointed that Chris had by then gotten too old to voice the part.
Yep, nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see!
And he had two bothers who also acted, and had the same voice. It’s odd to see one of them in something like Emergency! or Adam-12 and hear Linus’ voice coming out!
Ha! I’m older than you, born 12/31/54!
Y’know, after having seen ACBC so many times, the name Pamelyn Ferdin just didn’t sound right.
Turns out that she did indeed play Lucy in some Peanuts shows, but not until '69, through '71. The actress who voiced Lucy in the Christmas special was named Tracy Stratford, and only a year later Lucy was played by Sally Dryer in Great Pumpkin.
OP, have you ever seen the Great Pumpkin special? To me, that one does a much better job.
I wonder if there will ever come a time when A Charlie Brown Christmas will seem dated.
You would like it if you saw it when they were still shilling Dolly Madison during the commercials.