Caitlin Flanagan on the Staying Power of "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

"For half a century, it's been one of the most significant phrases in American Christianity. A prelude to something sacred in an unlikely place: the Gospel of Luke, King James translation, as recited by Linus van Pelt in A Charlie Brown Christmas.

"My parents were atheists; I knew almost nothing about Christianity as a child, although I got the lay of the land when I was sent to Catholic school in sixth grade. Before that, my parents - especially my mother - actively worked to keep me and my sister free from religion, Christianity in particular. But we had our gods. Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny reigned over us, with great kindness and generosity, and if we came, eventually, to a crisis of faith, we dealt with it privately. My sister and I understood that our feelings about Christmas were very important to our parents. The brief - transmitted in the silent language of the family - was to be happy, because our parents had had terrible childhoods, and instead of working out their pasts in psychoanalysis or 'involvement,' they threw themselves into these perfect Christmases. It was the most wonderful, extremely tense time of the year."

In a recent article in The Atlantic, writer Caitlin Flanagan reflected on the staying power of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

To access the complete article, please visit:

The Atlantic: Charlie Brown Christmas Special: An Inside Job (December 2021)