A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
PBS KIDS, 7:30 p.m. ET
This 1965 Peanuts holiday special, the first and still champion, used to be shown every year on network television, as befitting its status as a true TV Christmas cartoon classic. But times have changed. Through today, A Charlie Brown Christmas can be seen free on Apple TV+, if you have an Apple ID for another device. But also, today only, PBS and PBS Kids are showing this charming, perfect special, so you and your family can enjoy it the old-fashioned way. And while I may have a bone to pick with the idea of a free broadcast TV classic being acquired by a pay streaming service, which may be indicative of the commercialism and corporate greed that A Charlie Brown Christmas warned about, it can’t be denied that while the Internet taketh away, it also gives. There’s a meme and tweet floating around this year, for example, which points out what I never noticed in watching this Peanuts special at least every year for 55 years now – the type of bones on which Snoopy piles up and snacks. Man’s best friend? Hardly.