History YMMV / ACharlieBrownChristmas

* MisaimedMarketing:

** Lucy dismissing Music/LudwigVanBeethoven because he "never got his picture on a bubble gum card." Baseball card giant Topps' quirky Allen & Ginter line of cards, which mixes retro-style player cards with cards featuring various historical figures, did indeed [[https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/9404/cid/387628/2009-Topps-Allen-&-Ginter-83-Ludwig-van-Beethoven produce a Beethoven trading card]] in 2009.
* MemeticMutation:

** Even in {{Christmas Special}}s alone, ''Peanuts'' has done three more. None of them even come close in popularity to ''A Charlie Brown Christmas''.

** This special still reigns as by far the most popular ''Peanuts'' special, to the point some people aren't aware just how many there are outside of it and ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown'' (there are dozens).

** This special still reigns as by far the most popular ''Peanuts'' special, to the point some aren't aware how many there are outside this and ''It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown'' (there are dozens).

* HarsherInHindsight: Charlie Brown's depression now feels this way once you know his voice actor Peter Robbins struggled with mental health as an adult, and sadly took his own life in January 2022.

-->'''Linus:''' ''(awed)'' It boggles the mind.

* ToughActToFollow: There have been, to date, three other ''Peanuts'' Christmas-themed TV specials after this one (''WesternAnimation/ItsChristmastimeAgainCharlieBrown'', ''Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales'', and ''WesternAnimation/IWantADogForChristmasCharlieBrown''), but they all lurk in the shadow of this one since it has become so widely known and celebrated. It's telling that the second of those aired to fill up the remaining hour of airings from 2002 to 2019, yet most people wouldn't have a clue what you're talking about if you were to bring it up. ''It's Christmastime Again'' usually gets included with [=DVDs=] of the original.

** In the original broadcast, there were ads for Coca-Cola in opening and closing credits… in a show that protests the commercialization of Christmas. [[note]] Note that Schulz was never averse to merchandising ''Peanuts'' itself even before 1965 – he had already worked with Bill Melendez producing ''Peanuts''-themed commercials for Ford.[[/note]]

** This was neither Music/VinceGuaraldi's first participation in a ''Peanuts'' filmed adaptation: his first work was for the previous and unsold documentary, ''A Boy Named Charlie Brown'' in 1963. In fact, his signature creation, "Linus and Lucy," was created for that film and since it was unused for public viewing, he simply played it for the Christmas special.

** The dances the kids do are all more or less real DanceSensation moves from TheSixties. Violet is doing a really stiff version of The Watusi, while Linus and Sally are basically doing The Pony.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The TropeNamer, of sorts (technically the namer would be actual aluminum Christmas trees). The special's lampooning of them is partly credited with their disappearance by the 1970s. Other than their mention here, they've been so utterly forgotten that most viewers born after 1960 think it's something made up for the show. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminum_Christmas_tree But they were real]].[[note]]Realistic plastic Christmas trees took over in TheSeventies, as they were safe -- real aluminum trees carried a significant risk of electric shock -- and didn't require chopping down a live tree.[[/note]]

** Lucy dismissing Music/LudwigVanBeethoven because he "never got his picture on a bubble gum card." Topps' quirky Allen & Ginter line of cards, which mixes retro-style player cards with cards featuring various historical figures, did indeed [[https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/9404/cid/387628/2009-Topps-Allen-&-Ginter-83-Ludwig-van-Beethoven produce a Beethoven trading card]] in 2009.

** Lucy dismissing Music/LudwigVanBeethoven because he "never got his picture on a bubble gum card." Topps' quirky Allen & Ginter line of cards, which mixes retro-style player cards with cards featuring various historical figures, did indeed [[https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/9404/cid/387628/2009-Topps-Allen-&-Ginter-83-Ludwig-van-Beethoven include a Beethoven trading card]] in 2009.

* MemeticMutation: In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G8XH4WDxP4 the dance sequence]], see that kid in the orange shirt with spiky hair in front of Linus? That's "5". Given that he wasn't very notable even in the comic strip [[note]](his gimmick, along with that of his twin sisters "3" and "4" [also shown in the dance sequence], was that his father gave them numerical names as a way of giving in to the preponderance of numbers in people's lives; their lack of other distinguishing characteristics led to them being DemotedToExtra by the late 1960s)[[/note]], most people know him just for that dance he's doing. You know the one. Taken mainstream when the cast of ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' made a GagDub of the special.

* ToughActToFollow: There have been, to date, three other ''Peanuts'' Christmas-themed TV specials after this one (''WesternAnimation/ItsChristmastimeAgainCharlieBrown'', ''Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales'', and ''WesternAnimation/IWantADogForChristmasCharlieBrown''), but they all lurk in the shadow of this one since it has become so widely known and celebrated. It's telling that the second of those airs to fill up the remaining hour of current airings, yet most people wouldn't have a clue what you're talking about if you were to bring it up. ''It's Christmastime Again'' usually gets included with [=DVDs=] of the original.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Sums up the initial thoughts of the network before the special aired. The creators as well -- when Charles Schulz, Lee Mendelson, and Bill Melendez saw the final cut for the first time, they thought this would be the last animation ''Peanuts'' would ''ever'' do. Boy, were they wrong!

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** While the show still is pretty close to how it originally aired save for the removal of the sponsor tags, there were a few minor touchups made in later airings for better consistency, such as the addition of sound effects where there were none before (such as Snoopy "whirling" the blanket and Lucy flying back from her booth from Charlie Brown's SuddenlyShouting) and adding music to scenes that did not originally have them (such as when the kids are berating Charlie Brown for his choice of tree and when Lucy hands out the scripts). Several pieces of animation were also reworked as well, including a second dancing scene to make it a little less repetitive and Snoopy no longer singing along like a human at the end.
** After Creator/AppleTVPlus obtained the rights to the Peanuts holiday specials in 2020 and caused a public uproar when ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown'' only aired through the service and left out non-subscribers and non-streamers, Apple quickly made a deal with PBS and PBS Kids to preserve the traditional over-the-air broadcast of this special.