Meaning Making and Christmas

In an idle moment tonight I happened upon the original Charlie Brown Christmas on AppleTV+ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059026/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk. I was stunned! It was first aired in 1965, I was a H.S. teen then and I’m not sure I saw it that year. The now familiar Charles Schultz characters and the timeless music by Vince Guaraldi. hear Linus and Lucy on Apple Music It’s not about cute or nostalgia, it’s really about meaning.

The triumph of human values over cynicism, materialism and even psychoanalysis are all captured here. Charlie’s sincerity exposes him to so much flack. If this were set in the era of Social Media he definitely would by cyber-bullied into oblivion. Yet, Charlie doesn’t model anything we could call virtue or wisdom, he just lives. He doesn’t possess any strategies or try any behavioral fixes. He is lonely and depressed so he goes to “therapy” and for his 5 cents worth he is at first, ignored as therapist Lucy focuses on the payment and not the client. He is somewhat encouragingly told that he should participate in the Christmas pageant as its Director. What? Social pariah is to become the leader of this big seasonal event? Tellingly, the pageant is more a plaything for Lucy who writes the scripts, casts the characters and orders the scenery. Obviously this isn’t an act of compassion or even good therapist advice. Charlie is as much a prop for Lucy’s ego as a participant.

Finally, when he gets to try on the Director’s role he is soundly rejected. Without new skills, insights or behaviors, Charlie is left to do the unwelcome task of bring serious order into child’s play; be the leader of the unwilling and the unskilled. All they want to do is to play, not to act. They are being rebellious and spontaneous,…er kids! The rehearsal breaks down into child’s play. The unstructured kind that so few children know about today. It’s a free for all.

Unable to make an impact on the group’s ability to perform, Charlie’s given marching orders to go find a tree, a shiny metal one to grace the set. Accompanied by his sidekick Linus, they follow the lights and find a tree stand with all sorts of glitzy fabricated trees that dazzle. But, as most of you know, the one that attracts Charlie’s attention is a real tree. so puny and bare branched as to fall over when a small decorative ball is hung. Returning with his offering, his peers refuse to accept this perfectly flawed gift of nature. They were expecting something impressive, an artifact not a living thing.

In his usual dejected state, he brings the scrawny offering to his home and passing by Snoopy’s prize winning, lavishly lighted and trimmed dog house, he stops to filch a decorative ball to enliven his limp and lifeless arbor. Predictably even one modest ornament is too much for the tree to bare. As Charlie’s failure to make genuineness attractive, his playmates approach. We expect a continuation of the taunting and rejection, yet a true miracle happens. Eventually, as children used to do, they all get caught up in the spirit of the event. Stop harassing Charlie and focus on making this stick figure of a tree into a beautiful, iconic and fully decorated centerpiece for their carol singing and comradery. The mood transforms and just as it had in the trenches of Flanders and France during WWI on Christmas Eve, hostilities gave way to song, shared joy and a reaffirmation of the brotherhood of all humanity.

What important for me, is the realization that the Schultz version of Christmas is not about putting on a happy face to become socially acceptable or politically correct. There was no permanent change here, only the temporary exercise of each individual’s higher self. There was no effort or plan or even parents or teachers that made it happen. It was just the natural settling into what they all wanted to do anyway and Charlie “the director” was the catalyst. He chose the tree, he ignored the insults and the hostility. Somehow he stuck to his version of Christmas, the noncommercial, unadorned spirit of salvation. The salvation that only comes when we stop trying so hard to be saved.

So that’s my Christmas message to my friends who believe in Christmas or don’t, who believe in me or don’t. It doesn’t matter to find the perfect meaning in the holiday, just find the part of yourself that knows how to live in joy and peace and share it with those you see every day or want to see soon.