History Trivia / ACharlieBrownChristmas

* {{Defictionalization}}: Ironically, given the short's anti-commercialism message, replicas of the little flimsy tree Charlie Brown gets have become popular Christmas decorations.

* ChannelHop: After airing on Creator/{{CBS}} for 36 straight years, ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' moved to Creator/{{ABC}} in 2001. In 2020 Creator/AppleTVPlus purchased the exclusive rights for this special as well as ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown'' and ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownThanksgiving''. However, all three specials will be available for free viewing for limited time windows around the relevant holidays, and a deal was struck for ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' to air on Creator/{{PBS}} and Creator/PBSKids as well.

* NeverWorkWithChildrenOrAnimals: Schulz' insistence on using actual children as the voice actors for the cast meant that the recording sessions were apparently complete chaos, with many of the young actors (some of whom couldn't even read and had to be fed their lines one at a time) struggling with the complex dialogue and excited children running rampant around the recording studio. Impressively, despite the difficulty of working with actual children, they still managed to complete ''all'' the recording in [[{{Determinator}} one day]].

* ChildrenVoicingChildren: At the instigation of Charles Schulz, this was the UrExample, and boy, was it a hassle for the crew! Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins), Linus (Christopher Shea) and Lucy (Tracy Stratford) were all voiced by Hollywood-based child actors, but the majority of the others were non-professionals recruited by Lee Mendelson, and they needed extensive coaching from Bill Melendez on their line readings. In the case of 4-year-old Cathy Steinberg, who voiced Sally, she didn't know how to read and needed to have lines fed to her phonetically (leading to the "All I want is my fair share" flub mentioned above). It's even been suggested that you can hear traces of the Mexican accent of Bill Melendez in the way certain lines are said, in imitation of his coaching (particularly Linus saying "those are good reasons!").

** Sally trips over the line "All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share." In the special she was voiced by Cathy Steinberg, a 4-year-old neighbor of producer Lee Mendelson. She hadn't learned how to read yet and had to be fed her lines word by word, and in some cases, syllable by syllable.

* ChildrenVoicingChildren: At the insistence of Charles Schulz, this was the UrExample, and boy, was it a hassle for the crew!

* ChildrenVoicingChildren: The [[UrExample very first]], and boy, was it a hassle for the crew!

** Sally trips over the line "All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share." This is due to the fact that the girl who voiced her was so young that she hadn't learned how to read yet and had to be fed her lines word by word, and in some cases, syllable by syllable.

** Before it was decided to not have Snoopy speak beyond grunts and laughs, consideration was given to putting his ThoughtBubbleSpeech onscreen (until it was realized that younger children wouldn't be able to read the text), and to having a voice vocalize his thoughts (a concept that would later be used for ''Franchise/{{Garfield}}'' cartoons, and even for the animated versions of ''Theatre/YoureAGoodManCharlieBrown'' and ''Snoopy! The Musical'').

* {{Blooper}}: Given the insistence by Schulz and Mendelson on using actual children to play the ''Peanuts'' characters (and child-actors weren't really a thing in 1965), it's no surprise some lines were flubbed:

* ChannelHop: After airing on Creator/{{CBS}} for 36 straight years, the special moved to Creator/{{ABC}} in 2001. In 2020 Creator/AppleTVPlus picked up the exclusive rights, along with those for ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown'' and ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownThanksgiving''. However, all three specials will be available for free viewing for limited time windows around the relevant holidays, and a deal was struck for ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' to air on Creator/{{PBS}} and Creator/PBSKids as well.

* ChannelHop: After airing on Creator/{{CBS}} for 36 straight years, the special moved to Creator/{{ABC}} in 2001. As of 2020, it will be streamed on Creator/AppleTVPlus exclusively, along with ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown'' and ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownThanksgiving''. However, all three specials will be available for free viewing for limited time windows around the relevant holidays, and a deal was struck for ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' to air on Creator/{{PBS}} and Creator/PBSKids as well.

* ChannelHop: After airing on Creator/{{CBS}} for 36 straight years, the special moved to Creator/{{ABC}} in 2001. As of 2020, it will be on Creator/AppleTVPlus exclusively, along with ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown'' and ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownThanksgiving''. However, all three specials will be available for free viewing for limited time windows around the relevant holidays, and a deal was struck for ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' to air on Creator/{{PBS}} and Creator/PBSKids as well.

* ChannelHop: After airing on Creator/{{CBS}} for 36 straight years, the special moved to Creator/{{ABC}} in 2001. As of 2020, it will be on Creator/AppleTVPlus exclusively, along with ''WesternAnmation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown'' and ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownThanksgiving''. However, all three specials will be available for free viewing for limited time windows around the relevant holidays, and a deal was struck for ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' to air on Creator/{{PBS}} and Creator/PBSKids as well.

* ChannelHop: After airing on Creator/{{CBS}} for 36 straight years, the special moved to Creator/{{ABC}} in 2001. As of 2020, it will be on Creator/AppleTVPlus exclusively, along with most of the animated adaptations. However, the major specials will be available for free viewing for limited time windows around the relevant holidays, and a deal was struck for ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' to air on Creator/{{PBS}} and Creator/PBSKids as well.

* ChannelHop: After airing on Creator/{{CBS}} for 36 straight years, the special moved to Creator/{{ABC}} in 2001. In 2020, it will now be on Creator/AppleTVPlus exclusively, along with most of the animated adaptations. However, the major specials will be available for free viewing for limited time windows around the relevant holidays, and a deal was struck for ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' to air on Creator/{{PBS}} and Creator/PBSKids as well.

* ChannelHop: After airing on Creator/{{CBS}} for 36 straight years, the special moved to its present network home of Creator/{{ABC}} in 2001. In 2020, it will now be on Creator/AppleTVPlus exclusively, along with most of the animated adaptations. However, the major specials will be available for free viewing for limited time windows around the relevant holidays, and a deal was struck for ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' to air on Creator/{{PBS}} and Creator/PBSKids as well.

** When Apple TV+ gained sole rights to the Peanuts holiday specials in 2020, public uproar basically forced Apple to make a deal with PBS and PBS Kids to preserve the traditional over-the-air airing of the special.

* NotScreenedForCritics: CBS was so disappointed in ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' before its first airing that they refused to let any TV critics see it beforehand, terrified that the inevitable avalanche of bad reviews would sink everyone's careers. They were eventually forced to relent in recognition of what happens when this trope is played, and let one writer from Time Magazine in – he watched the special at CBS's office and then left without saying a word. Initially, this vindicated CBS's decision, but when the next issue of Time came out, the critic's review of the special was ''glowing''.

** Dave Brubeck and Cal Tjader both turned down offers to do the music, because they were too busy. Brubeck later did the score for ''Series/ThisIsAmericaCharlieBrown: The NASA Space Station''.

** Dave Brubeck and Cal Tjader both turned down offers to do the music, because they were too busy. Brubeck later did the score for ''This is America, Charlie Brown: The NASA Space Station''.

** When Apple TV+ gained sole rights to the Peanuts holiday specials in 2020, public uproar basically forced Apple to make a deal with Creator/{{PBS}} and Creator/PBSKids to preserve the traditional over-the-air airing of the special.

** The 21st-century showings on ABC (which generally broadcasts both the cut version and the uncut version over a given holiday season) have taken further cuts, removing such iconic moments as Lucy pestering Schroeder over the proper playing of "Jingle Bells", to even cutting poor Shermy's only line.
** The show is often paired with the much shorter ''Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales'' so that it can be shown intact and allowed to run over time. Now no longer relevant with the move to Creator/AppleTVPlus.

* NetworkToTheRescue: CBS made some cuts to the special in the '90s because shows made more room for commercials by then (see EditedForSyndication above). When ABC acquired the rights in 2001, they blocked out a full hour for the special so that it could run uncut[[labelnote:*]] (aside from the aforementioned Coca-Cola references)[[/labelnote]], commissioning ''Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales'' to fill the extra time. Note that ABC also airs a cut version during the season, but there ''will'' be at least one full-length airing.

* ChannelHop: After airing on Creator/{{CBS}} for 36 straight years, the special moved to its present network home of Creator/{{ABC}} in 2001. In 2020, it will now be on Creator/AppleTVPlus exclusively, along with most of the animated adaptations. However, the major specials will be available for free viewing for limited time windows around the relevant holidays.
** On December 13, 2020, Creator/{{PBS}} will air "A Charlie Brown Christmas".

** The show is often paired with the much shorter ''Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales'' so that it can be shown intact and allowed to run over time. Now longer relevant with the move to Creator/AppleTVPlus.

** The show is often paired with the much shorter ''Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales'' so that it can be shown intact and allowed to run over time.

* ChannelHop: After airing on Creator/{{CBS}} for 36 straight years, the special moved to its present network home of Creator/{{ABC}} in 2001. In 2020, it will now be on Creator/AppleTVPlus exclusively, along with most of the animated adaptations.

* ChannelHop: After airing on Creator/{{CBS}} for 36 straight years, the special moved to its present network home of Creator/{{ABC}} in 2001.

* PopCultureUrbanLegends: There's a false rumor that the special originally featured characters throwing snowballs at a Coca Cola can that was removed when the sponsorship deal fell through. While the scene being cut to save on time was nothing out of the ordinary, possibly what sparked this rumor was the fact that it was also missing from home video releases (which aren't confined to time for commercials) for some amount of time, leading people to falsely believe that it had to be cut for that reason. This rumor was finally closed when old film prints that still had the sponsorships intact had the can they were throwing snowballs at still posing as a generic food can instead of a Coca-Cola can.