By Jason Soroski, The Gospel Coalition.
Screen grab of Linus after he dropped the blanket.
This month “A Charlie Brown Christmas” aired on national primetime television for the 50th time. In a world where the latest greatest technology is outdated in a matter of months, and social media trends come and go in a matter of days, 50 years of anything becomes quite meaningful.
I am a fan of all things nostalgic and all things Christmas, and so when the two are combined I am hooked. The Charlie Brown Christmas special falls squarely into that category.
I was in the first grade back when they still performed Christmas pageants in schools (less than 50 years, but still a very long time ago), and our class performed a version of the Charlie Brown Christmas. Since I was kind of a bookworm and already had a blue blanket, I was chosen to play the part of Linus. As Linus, I memorized Luke 2:8–14, and that Scripture has been hidden in my heart ever since.
But while working so diligently to learn those lines, there is one important thing I didn’t notice then, and didn’t notice until now.
Right in the middle of speaking, Linus drops the blanket.
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You make an interesting point. I had not noticed the dropped blanket in the scene. Perhaps there is another subtle blanket message in another scene where Linus wraps his blanket around the base of the sad looking ‘Charlie Brown Tree’ and says something like *It’s not a bad tree. It just needs a little love.* I would never have noticed it if you hadn’t pointed out the Luke, dropped blanket scene. Thanks.
Ever notice Charlie Brown’s tree is nailed to a cross, it is only real tree amidst fakes, it was rejected by everyone, then after Charlie Brown professes “I killed it” it I s raised into a more glorious form. Preached a sermon on this a few years ago including the blanket. Have never found where Shultz did this intentially but I am sure he did