The first time Linus and Lucy has raised hackles.
I do think it’s true that the massive success of A Charlie Brown Christmas is the only reason any of us are still talking about the piece, and the only reason any of the other specials got made.
It is not inherently a Christmas song. However, it has become a Christmas song by association, and that association is stronger than the association for many other songs which are likewise Christmas only by association.
Getting back to the OP, I actually downloaded a cover of “Linus and Lucy” without twigging to the Peanuts connection, and I never figured it out until recently; I’m not sure if it was this thread, another SDMB thread that mentioned the title in connection with Peanuts, or something else just a few weeks ago. (I was just looking for music I hadn’t heard by a particular vocalist, and was a little surprised to find an instrumental track, but I liked it.)
Anyway, it didn’t immediately strike me as ‘That’s a Christmas tune’ either, so I voted ‘No.’ (And now I feel really stupid for assuming that the title characters were a romantic couple. :smack:)
Eeeewwww!
I’m surprised how many people only hear it around the holidays. On the radio it seems to be a jazz and/or easy listening station staple - I hear it pretty much year round.
While I am totally gobsmacked to learn that Guaraldi did not write it specifically for the Christmas special, I don’t think I do.
I’m comfortable with my assertion that it’s Christmas music, in the same sense that Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (from a movie about the 1904 World’s Fair) is Christmas music.
Don’t make me mention Neptune’s Daughter.
Um.
If you don’t mention Neptune’s Daughter, something really bad is going to happen to you.
Well, one big difference is that only one has Christmas in the title!
Also, we never saw “Have Yourself…” performed by Judy subsequently in Easter Parade and The Pirate and A Star is Born, all in specifically non-Yuletide settings.
Essentially, the extent to which people consider “L&L” Xmas music is proportional to how often they’re exposed to the song. If the only time they ever hear it is during said Christmas special, it’s understandable. A good analogy might be the “Troika” from Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kije, which pops up often this time of year because of the sleigh bell thing.
But the fact remains that it’s been used in plenty of other non-Christmas contexts, and most of the times I’ve heard it (other specials, my Boy Named Charlie Brown soundtrack album) is outside of that show, so to not consider it Christmas music is perfectly reasonable.
Who died and made you Solomon? 
Yeah, I don’t really listen to easy listening stations, so about the only time I hear L&L in the wild is around this time of year. Heard it yesterday at Hobby Lobby, in fact. It’s one of those songs that didn’t start out with Christmas associations to me, but now is just de facto a part of the Christmas soundtrack, much like “My Favorite Things.” My cultural association with that song was “Sound of Music,” but now it has been taken over by Christmas.
Damn you.
Neptune’s Daughter (1949) marks the first time Baby, It’s Cold Outside was used in anything other than Mr. and Mrs. Frank Loesser’s private dinner parties.
Peruvian professional polo player Ricardo Montalban seduces Esther Williams with it, while, in another part of the hotel, Betty Garrett (her sister) is going all vampy on Red Skelton (his masseur) with the same song.
And now it’s a Christmas Song! 
No.
Christmas songs sound out-of-place when not played during Christmas. As in people will ask “Why the hell are you playing Christmas music when it’s August?!”
While it was made famous by a Christmas episode of Peanuts, it appears in many other episodes and is more accurately classified as a “Peanuts” song. Compare that to Guaraldi’s “Skating,” for instance.
It doesn’t have lyrics (or even a title) that connect it to the holiday or wintertime. It doesn’t have any jingle-bell percussion that is a hallmark of “Christmasy” music.
Moreover, it was originally written before the cartoon and the jazzy brilliance transcends the narrow classification of “Christmas Music.”
I voted NO and the results are 78 Yes and 77 No.
I guess that makes the poll question a Great Poll Question.
Thank you. I was honestly curious what people thought. My Die Hard question was very overwhelmingly yes. I am a little surprised this is as evenly split as it is.
Oh, and
I just checked my iTunes library, and I have ten albums of Christmas songs. Of those, four contain “Jesu”, and two contain “Halleluiah”. Both were also included in the program of the TubaChristmas concert I attended this year. I think it’s safe to say that means they’re both associated with Christmas.
Die Hard was undisputedly set during Christmas. Whether that makes it a Christmas movie is in the eye of the beholder. L&L was not written for Christmas, it appeared in one Christmas special but also appeared in dozens of non-Christmas Peanuts projects over decades. It’s easy to see how there would be a difference.
Plus all those people who say that Die Hard is a Christmas movie are simply wrong.
D&R
I would agree with you, then. It’s just never a connection I’ve made or noticed, and I would not have considered those Christmas tunes if you had asked me. But if they do appear that much on Christmas collections then, like “Linus and Lucy”, I suppose they’re de facto Christmas tunes. They just don’t seem to play them at all on the Christmas stations I listen to, and this is the first I’ve learned of it, so I guess you learn something new every day at the Straight Dope.
Please feel free to voice that here. The Poll is still open
Been there, done that.