"One red Christmas ball ornament and Linus' blanket are included to complete the nostalgic look." $7.99
Want to celebrate the spirit of the Charlie Brown Christmas special? Now you can buy a replica of Charlie Brown’s forlorn little tree that’s machine-calibrated to be imperfect!
Now might be a good time to ask: why do we love A Charlie Brown Christmas so much?
Maybe it’s because we see a little of ourselves in the characters:
Charlie Brown, the first cartoon character to ever admit that he gets depressed around the holidays, bringing relief to those of us who feel the same way.
Lucy, with her pragmatic and prescient remark that “Everyone knows Christmas is run by a Big Eastern Syndicate now.”
Sally, who in her letter to Santa, asks “How about tens and twenties?”, is the ultimate materialistic kid. (Let she among us who did not covet the Barbie Corvette cast the first stone.)
Maybe it’s also because the moral of the story resonates with us on some deep level: even though the way we celebrate Christmas may have lost its way in the modern world, we can still remember the true meaning of Christmas, and that spirit reminds us to be good to one another.
Returning to the 18-inch artificial Charlie Brown tree. Now, I have nothing against artificial trees per se — the jury is out on whether a real or fake tree is kindest to the environment. But the notion that you can celebrate the spirit of A Charlie Brown Christmas by buying a replica of the imperfect, non-commercial tree that Charlie rescues from the aluminum tree lot is, frankly, nuts. What about buying a cheap knockoff made to mimic the imperfections of the natural world says goodwill toward men, and love for the rough majestic beauty of conifers in winter?
In the story, Charlie, feeling unloved and unwanted during the Christmas season, sees a little tree that’s also unloved and unwanted. He has a “small-C” Christian impulse to show the tree a little love, and he hopes that forgiving the tree its forlorn state, he too will be shown forgiveness by his friends. Like the forlorn Mary and Joseph from the Bible story, who before they are exalted and the angels sing, are also unloved and unwanted in Bethlehem on a cold night. This, we learn from Linus later in the episode, is the true meaning of Christmas. Right?
Now, for folks who’d like to celebrate Charlie Brown’s noble impulse, I will refer you to the example of Licking Creek Bend Farm organic Christmas trees, just outside of Washington, DC. This season, they are offering “Charlie Brown trees” for $25, less than half the price of their conventionally pretty trees: “these trees are all imperfect and have their own character.”
Now that’s the spirit.
Yes, I believe the existence of this item means that irony is truly dead.