Advent Parable Movie: "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

This week’s parable in film, A Charlie Brown Christmas, is one of my favorite Christmas stories. The music always brings pictures of snow, pageants, and lights to mind whether heard in July or December. The story centers around the activities of Charlie Brown and his friends as they plan for the holiday season. Decorating, sending cards, writing letters to Santa and Mrs. Claus, fill each day with energy and excitement.

There seems to be some confusion among the Peanuts crew though about the true meaning of Christmas. Lucy expresses it this way, “Then on Christmas Eve, he flies through the air in a sleigh with a bunch of reindeer and brings all of these kids the things they’ve asked for…Why? I don’t know.” The take-a-way for Lucy is that Christmas is about asking, giving, and receiving, a concept not foreign to people of faith. Jesus instructs us to “ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find.” Lucy’s focus on material gain, however, blinds her to the humble act of asking and the selfless act of giving.

Charlie Brown echoes similar thoughts, “I just don’t understand Christmas, I guess. I like getting presents, sending Christmas cards, and decorating trees, and all that, but I’m still not happy.” The busyness of the season, though fun and exciting, is emotionally and spiritually empty for him. His choice of a Christmas tree no one else wanted expresses an attempt to find meaning through a simple act of kindness. Putting his much-loved security blanket around the tree, Linus affirms those efforts. Maybe, Linus says, “…the tree just needs a little love.”

In the final scenes of the story, Charlie Brown asks in exasperation, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” We might be asking ourselves the same or similar questions as the holiday season looks and feels very different this year. Accustom to gathering together in celebration, we are learning new ways of being family, neighbor, church, and community from a distance. In our efforts, like the tree, we could all use a warm blanket and a little extra love as we wait and watch for the “…good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”

Image credit: https://pixabay.com/images/id-1935373/