My Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

Today I bought the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree (pictured). It’s a familiar holiday sight: the twiggy tree, the single red ornament. In the movie, the tree gets a magical transformation into a full-fledged tree with ornaments and lights. Obviously, I don’t expect my replica to get a magical transformation defying physics.

But I had an interesting moment while purchasing the tree at Walgreens earlier today. It was selling for about $10 and it was next to other similarly priced artificial trees. I’m partial to the Peanuts franchise, having always heard wonderful praises of creator Charles Schulz and having been cast as Marcie in my high school musical production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. But after I picked up the box from the shelf, I stood contemplating my other options. The other artificial trees were fuller, with more ornaments and lights. Some had angel ornaments, others had bright colors.

Despite the obvious lessons of A Charlie Brown Christmas and the selection of the Christmas tree, when I was looking at the other options and holding onto the box for the Charlie Brown tree replica, I had this thought of it being like Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade. In the choice for the Holy Grail, the villains chose the more elaborate cup, but Indiana Jones chose the plainest cup but the one more likely to infuse the most meaning.

So whether infused by my love of Peanuts or because I was sort of reliving the A Charlie Brown Christmas movie while thinking of Indiana Jones, I’m very happy with my holiday tree and its single ornament. I’m sure there’s a Happy Snoopy Dance in there somewhere.

-cct