YMMV / A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Why did Peppermint Patty get angry about not having a traditional dinner? Since it was just her and her dad, and depending on his own cooking ability, she may never have had one. Thus, when wanting to share Thanksgiving dinner with Charlie Brown's family, it could be she got a bit upset because those hopes were dashed and didn't know how to react.
• Base-Breaking Character: Peppermint Patty as she's portrayed in the special. Is she selfish for wanting a whole three-course meal to be made by the kids and a dog, or is she just an immature kid? Mainstream Twitter users think the former, to the point where she made it to the trending tab, but Peanuts fans think the latter. After all, a lot of the kids in the franchise can be cruel at times.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Snoopy fighting a chair that suddenly comes to life. The most that gets referenced is Franklin slipping in the poorly done chair.
  • Snoopy and Woodstock dressing up as pilgrims, since Charlie Brown has Snoopy return to wearing his chef's hat.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Woodstock putting Snoopy's ear in the toaster by mistake? Painful. Him buttering the ear once it pops out? Hysterical! Woodstock's ensuing "Oh, Crap!" Smile is priceless.
• Fridge Brilliance: From a Doylist perspective, Peppermint Patty makes a better "antagonist" than Lucy. For one, it's easier to believe Marcie shaming Patty than anyone, especially Linus, shaming Lucy. In addition, Patty is enough of an outsider to the core cast to believably not have a proper Thanksgiving; it's already established that Linus and Lucy have a nuclear family, whereas Patty comes from a single-parent home.
• Fridge Logic: Invoked In-Universe by Charlie Brown, when everyone sings "Over the River and Through the Woods", saying his grandmother lives in a condo.
• One-Scene Wonder: Lucy appears in The Teaser with Charlie Brown to deliver the trademark football gag, then doesn't turn up again for the rest of the special even with the prevalence of Linus.
• Seasonal Rot: Though this one isn't disliked by fans and still has a decent reception, most consider it a step down in quality from the 1960s Peanuts specials. Being sandwiched between the very well-regarded Halloween and Christmas specials every year certainly doesn't help.
• Values Dissonance:
  • As seen in the image on the main page, in the brief wide shots of the "dinner", Franklin sits alone on the right side of the table, which makes it look like no one wanted to sit by the Token Minority character, and it's gained some negative attention from some modern commentators. Charles M. Schulz's widow Jeanne has even weighed in, pointing out that Schulz had nothing to do with the animation in the show, and for whatever reason it was Bill Meléndez's artists who decided to place Franklin there. A special was released in 2024 about Franklin that addresses this scene.
  • When the kids are going to Charlie Brown's grandmother's house, none of the kids are shown to be wearing (or even putting on) a seat belt. ^note While seat belt installation in the US has been mandatory since The '60s, usage wouldn't be enforced until The '80s, after numerous studies showed how often they saved lives and lowered injuries (and thereby drastically reduced insurance company payout amounts).

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