20 essential classic holiday films to watch this year

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

Some of the best Christmas features are the ones that premiered exclusively on television. Are they movies? Well, for the purposes of this list they are! A Charlie Brown Christmas was the first time children were left to wonder: how does one reconcile the commercialism of the holiday season with the love of friends and family?

Our perpetually melancholy lead, Charlie Brown, finds himself feel a bit blue, believing that he’s lost the Christmas spirit because of how commercial it’s gotten. Pretty heady stuff for an 8-year-old, I’d say.

Charles Schulz’s Peanuts characters have hosted a short for pretty every holiday, but A Charlie Brown Christmas is their most enduring. The animation is lively while still retaining the darkly inked lines of its origins in the Sunday funnies. Your favorite Peanuts characters are all present and accounted for, particularly Linus, who gets a chance to steal the show with his final speech at the end.

A Charlie Brown Christmas is also the first time (that I can recall) where children were actively told about the Nativity story. It’s a unique little gem from the ‘60s that attempted to help kids understand Christmas was about more than presents…but you can still enjoy gifts too.

Buy on Amazon or Vudu.