Airing every year since 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas is the longest-running cartoon special in the history of television. It is considered a classic alongside How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Christmas Story.

Like the Peanuts strip, A Charlie Brown Christmas was innovative for its time. Schulz and the producers rejected common gimmicks like the laugh-track (Schulz “wanted the audience to enjoy the show at their own pace,”) and embraced riskier ideas like Vince Guaraldi’s modern jazz score, using real children instead of adult voice talent, and centering on a religious theme.

Schulz, a devout Christian, wrote a show that portrayed Charlie Brown tackling the meaning of Christmas. The special is unique because Charlie Brown, a child, is in an emotional and spiritual crisis, struggling to understand “what it is Christmas is all about.” Finally, for Charlie, Christmas is not about materialism, it's about religion (which is ironic because the special was sponsored by Coca-Cola, and the product was heavily advertised in the show), specifically, the birth of the Baby Jesus. The show's highlights include ice skating, Sally's Christmas pagent flub, and Linus’s impassioned narration of the Gospel of Luke: "For unto you is born this day a Savior...”

The show succeeds by being spiritually meaningful but not preachy, and by showing children being children, enjoying Christmas, but also aware of a deeper meaning.