December 1965.
It was 60 years ago, in December 1965, that Charles Schulz’ classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas, first hit the airwaves. The half-hour animated show gave us an unusual story: an elementary-school-aged child isn’t satisfied with his friends’ lengthy gift lists, desire for over-the-top decorations, celebrations, and even a desire to be named a Christmas Queen. He thinks Christmas must mean more, and he is willing to share that his heart isn’t satisfied. He longs to learn the true meaning of Christmas.
Admittedly, Charlie Brown’s friends aren’t terribly kind as Charlie Brown seeks answers to his questions. He’s laughed at and ridiculed, but remains undeterred in his search for the true meaning of Christmas. Only one friend – Linus – takes the time to explain just what Christmas is about, as he recites, on primetime television, a portion of the birth narrative from Luke’s Gospel.
1965 was an interesting year for Schulz to debut this show: There was a growing escalation of the conflict in Vietnam, and more U.S. troops – husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, friends and neighbors – were heading off to serve their country in a part of the world that was unfamiliar in terrain and culture, a conflict from which many would not return and from which many who would return would be broken in ways we might not have imagined.
1965 also marked Congress’ passage of a new Voting Rights Act. Signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson; this new Voting Rights Act was passed nearly 100 years after the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, which had originally granted emancipated black persons the right to vote. It was our nation’s second hard-fought attempt at opening the voting franchise to persons who had been systematically denied the opportunity by racially-motivated state laws and barriers. The decades-long struggle for voting rights for black persons reached a fevered peak on March 7, 1965, when peaceful protesters marching on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama were met with a violent attack, on a day that would be recalled in history as Bloody Sunday.
And, also in the summer of 1965, California’s Watts Riots showed that – despite President Johnson having signed the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964 – the U.S. still had unresolved underlying racial tension and struggle lived out in inequality and hardship.
In the midst of all that was happening in 1965, Charles Schulz spoke into the beating heart of a nation. Through a young child, he allowed viewers who might not have been “feeling Christmas” in what had been a challenging year to refuse to go along with a complacent crowd, to question the commercialization attached to Christmas, and to ask if Christmas meant more – as they themselves and neighbors around them suffered.
“…to you is born this day in the City of David a Savior…” “…do not be afraid…”
Trusty Linus gives Charlie Brown a scriptural reminder about the true meaning of Christmas: Christmas really is just about love. God’s love transforms everything – yes, even Charlie Brown and a spindly little fir tree. Even for its time, when many more Americans claimed to be churchgoers and believers, the primetime network special may have seemed to have gone out on a limb with its message of love, wrapped in scripture.
Linus wasn’t and isn’t wrong. Christmas is about love: It is about the love of the Creator for all the created world – love that surpassed warfare and strife, conflict and conflagration, love that transcended all of our human boundaries, love that took on human flesh to live among the poor and disenfranchised in an occupied land where sickness, poverty, violence and sorrow were all far too commonplace. It was and is a love that showed that humankind would never be alone.
In 1965, and for generations to come, Schulz gave us permission, perhaps for the first time, to acknowledge how different everything in our lives would be when we just allowed ourselves to love.
But Charles Schulz didn’t just give viewers permission to question the meaning of Christmas – and the commercialization that we had attached to it. Schulz also gave viewers the opportunity to admit misgivings, to question established societal “norms,” and to refuse to go along with the madding crowd. Viewers could see and believe in the power of love.
As God’s love made flesh was transformative for the First Century world, God’s love is still transformative for us. 2025 may seem as unsettling for us as 1965 seemed for our parents and grandparents. There is still conflict, all over the world; warfare rages in too many places, and sickness, poverty, violence, undereducation, underemployment and sorrow are all still far too commonplace for too many of our neighbors. We still wrestle with profound questions around justice and equity for all of God’s people.
Charles Schulz still speaks to us today, through the eyes of a young child. Yes, Charlie Brown, Christmas does mean more than the gifts, the decorations, the celebrations. In case we’ve forgotten, or aren’t feeling very Christmas-y in the midst of all that surrounds us, Christmas still means love.
And because God chose to share God’s love with us in flesh and blood, we know so much more about what it means to share that love with one another – and that love transforms the world.
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