That question, asked by a young child, defined a television program three score years ago that has become a landmark of American popular culture. But as A Charlie Brown Christmas celebrates its 60th anniversary — the show premiered on CBS on Dec. 9, 1965 — the increasing secularization of American society means fewer people than ever truly understand the meaning of Christmas.
Holiday Classic
For an animated work that almost didn’t get made and featured numerous technical flaws due to its shoestring budget, A Charlie Brown Christmas became an instant holiday classic, not to mention an Emmy and Peabody Award winner. The script’s humorous asides (Christmas is “run by a big eastern syndicate”) and quirky characters — Lucy’s stand offering psychiatric help for 5 cents,
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But the heart of the show, and Peanuts creator Charles Schulz’s prime motivation for doing the special, lay in its dramatic recitation of the Gospel of Luke. When Charlie Brown (voiced by Peter Robbins), upon receiving derision for his puny Christmas tree and after seeing myriad signs of holiday commercialization around him, asks for the true meaning of Christmas, Linus Van Pelt (voiced by Christopher Shea) rings forth like a bell in the night, recounting the annunciation of the Nativity to the shepherds:
“That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”
Drop in Religiosity
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The trend comes after Covid-era lockdowns made church inaccessible to many Americans for portions of the pandemic, changing attendance habits that in some cases have persisted in the years since. Gallup also noted that levels of American religiosity have grown closer to more secularized OECD countries than the global median for all nations.
It also came as A Charlie Brown Christmas itself disappeared from the television airwaves. In late 2020, Apple TV acquired the rights to Peanuts media for its streaming platform. Public criticism of Apple’s rights purchase led to A Charlie Brown Christmas airing on most PBS stations in 2020 and 2021. But since 2022, the special has not aired on broadcast television after 56 straight years on CBS (which commissioned the special), ABC, and then PBS.
Of course, the special’s move to Apple TV had much more to do with the economics of streaming and the desire of streaming services to acquire “must-watch” content than any religious sentiment. But taking the clear and unmistakable message of A Charlie Brown Christmas off the network airwaves reflects, and at the margins could increase, the removal of religion from the center of American life.
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A Charlie Brown Christmas is available via streaming on Apple TV+. Non-subscribers can find the film on DVD.
* Original Article:
https://thefederalist.com/2025/12/24/secularized-america-needs-a-charlie-brown-christmas-now-more-than-ever/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=secularized-america-needs-a-charlie-brown-christmas-now-more-than-ever