As you start boiling the potatoes and mixing the pies this Thanksgiving season, turn down the early Christmas music for 25 minutes to watch the best Thanksgiving special around: “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.” Not only does it whisk you back to childhood, it just about sets in place what will happen at your Thanksgiving dinner. Except you should know not to kick the football.
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Football and Fall
Almost as traditional as turkey may be the pigskin. Whether it is watching the Lions and Cowboys while eating, or hitting the backyard for a quick game following the feast, it’s almost always present during the day. It wouldn’t feel right if the special didn’t kick off with Lucy tempting Charlie yet again with the football kick. Always present in the comics, it was a fixture by Schulz. But hey, you gotta hand it to Charlie for that perseverance. Something may make you feel like a ball has been pulled out from under you during the day, but you have to take it like Charlie and not let it ruin your Thanksgiving.
Holiday Worrying
For much of us around the holiday season, a sense of anxiety hangs around us just like clouds of dirt around Pigpen. Stress seems to peak around the holidays, as traveling, gifts, and other actions take over our minds. Don’t fret too much; Charlie Brown feels the same. It’s not far into the special when he echoes many of our thoughts about what Thanksgiving brings: “We’ve got another holiday to worry about.” But even as it seems like everything is piling on you at once during the holiday season, the special reminds you and Charlie alike that the payoff, like always, is very worth it.
Photo Credit: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Cooking
Thanksgiving dinner isn’t magically conjured for your eating pleasure. The amount of food is always compiled by everyone in the family in order to make the best spread possible; it’s a team effort. For Charlie’s Friendsgiving, an assembly line of toasting, buttering, and popping is established by Charlie, Snoopy and Woodstock in a way to get it all done before the guests arrive. While your kitchen may not have 35 toasters on the counter, it’s still a collection of everyone doing their part to put the dinner on the table.
Complaints
No Thanksgiving is complete without some drama. There’s always going to be your one uncle getting upset that the leg was picked clean before he made his way to the food. Peppermint Patty is the culprit here, as even though she invited herself to the party, she was not happy with the food that “Chuck” served her. The motley collection of toast, popcorn, jellybeans, and pretzel sticks was not enough for her Thanksgiving tastes, just like your great Aunt that doesn’t appreciate the lumps in her potatoes.
Thanksgiving Thanks and Traditions
At the end of the day, all negativity and stress can be pushed aside to relish the true meaning of Thanksgiving: being with people that mean something to you. After Charlie feels like he “ruined everyone’s Thanksgiving,” he is reassured that the important idea is that they “should just be thankful and be together.” Following the first dinner’s derailing, all of the friends are able to travel to Charlie’s Grandma’s and spend that time together with friends and family, with no more problems. You’ll get to a point where you may want to pull a Peppermint and explode this holiday season, but you’ll later see that all of the fuss isn’t worth it, and you’ll experience the importance of Thanksgiving like a Peanut. And that leaves you with one last thing to do… like Snoopy and Woodstock, you can’t forget to battle for that wishbone. And take that wish to the bank.