Everyone has a Charlie Brown Christmas

If you go with the flow, you can survive this holiday season

We've been conditioned to make Christmas a special occasion, a picture-perfect celebration with delicious feasts around the dining table, fabulous gifts picked out and beautifully wrapped, homes warmly decorated and keeping traditions to the letter.

But things change over time, and so do expectations.

Years ago we used to write Christmas cards to a long list of people, then for years pre-Covid we summarised our year in a letter sent out with cards, but this year we only sent out a mere handful.

Expectations bring more tension and stress

We used to brine and roast a turkey every year, checking on it hourly and basting it to prevent it from burning in the oven. The last two years we pre-ordered a roast piglet and we still had lots of leftovers. Congee made from the bones is just as good as the ones made from turkey.

It can be so hard to hold things together with expectations to be happy and joyous 24 hours a day, which can lead to tension and arguments that reverberate to the rest of the family. It just ruins everyone's day, or the rest of the holiday.

Which is why I'm so grateful for A Charlie Brown Christmas, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.

The animated annual classic is about how Charlie Brown feels depressed and wonders if he will find the true meaning of Christmas. He eventually finds it in a small sad-looking tree that we all call "a Charlie Brown tree." 

A jazzy Christmas makes things better

When Charles Schultz made the TV special in 1965, it wasn't clear how A Charlie Brown Christmas would be received.

But maybe it resonated with people -- as someone on Instagram posted, they felt seen. 

Christmas for me is the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas. It's light, jazzy and improvised, cause that's what life is... go with the flow to survive the holidays intact!