Why Charlie Brown is Wrong About Christmas

In the most Christian twenty-five minutes in all of television history, everyone knows that Linus nails the Gospel. Charlie Brown, however, is wrong about more than you think.

This analysis is free, but with Premium Membership you get MORE. Join today.

NOTE: We republish this essay every Christmas to give you hope. Enjoy. — RDM

by Rod D. Martin
December 21, 2025

In the perfectly delightful A Charlie Brown Christmas, perhaps the most Christian twenty-five minutes of television ever, everyone’s favorite Round-Headed Kid unendingly decries the “commercialism” of Christmas.

And this is one of oh so many reasons Charlie Brown is rightly called a blockhead.

Commercialism is not, of course, the “real meaning of Christmas.” But the fact that Linus has to tell Charlie Brown what that true meaning is tells the rest of the story. Most people complaining about Christmas’s commercialism don’t know anything about Christmas’s “true meaning” either: they’re just complaining, as they always do, about everything.

And complaining is the exact opposite of Christmas’s true meaning. Christmas is about grace. And grace, once received, is about gratitude.