A Peanuts Christmas [Hardcover]

Charles M. Schulz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2005

It’s Christmas time, Charlie Brown!

Christmas is a joyous time of year—and what could be more fun than sharing it with dear friends? Celebrate the season with the Peanuts characters you’ve loved so long. Sing carols with Charlie Brown and company around Schroeder’s piano. See Snoopy’s festively decorated doghouse. Find out if Lucy’s been naughty or nice. Discover if snow has any effect on Pig Pen’s “aura.” And learn about the true meaning of Christmas with Linus.

Just in time for the holiday season, A Peanuts Christmas is the complete collection of Christmas strips from 1950 to 1999. For the first time ever this delightful book brings together nearly fifty years of comfort and joy with Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the gang.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's not too late to order a few more stocking stuffers.... Among the Christmas titles that didn't arrive in time for our holiday reviews feature ("Holiday Roundup: Deck the Shelves," Sept. 23): A Peanuts Christmas by Charles M. Schulz unites a "complete collection" of Christmas-themed Peanuts strips, from 1950 to 1999, in one festively designed volume. Charlie Brown sends Santa a wish list and receives a form rejection slip; a costumed Peppermint Patty laments being cast once again as a sheep in the Christmas pageant ("Slouching towards Bethlehem, huh, sir?" Marcie asks when Peppermint Patty trips); while Linus keeps searching for the true meaning of Christmas. Schulz's fans can watch the image of Charlie Brown evolve from his earliest incarnation to the universally recognized contemporary look, right before their eyes. All ages.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

It?s Christmas time, Charlie Brown!

Christmas is a joyous time of year?and what could be more fun than sharing it with dear friends? Celebrate the season with the Peanuts characters you?ve loved so long. Sing carols with Charlie Brown and company around Schroeder?s piano. See Snoopy?s festively decorated doghouse. Find out if Lucy?s been naughty or nice. Discover if snow has any effect on Pig Pen?s ?aura.? And learn about the true meaning of Christmas with Linus.

Just in time for the holiday season, A Peanuts Christmas is the complete collection of Christmas strips from 1950 to 1999. For the first time ever this delightful book brings together nearly fifty years of comfort and joy with Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the gang. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 156 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (October 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034548407X
• ISBN-13: 978-0345484079
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 0.6 x 8.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,701,341 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charles M. Schulz was born November 25, 1922 in Minneapolis. His destiny was foreshadowed when an uncle gave him, at the age of two days, the nickname Sparky (after the racehorse Spark Plug in the newspaper strip Barney Google).

In his senior year in high school, his mother noticed an ad in a local newspaper for a correspondence school, Federal Schools (later called Art Instruction Schools). Schulz passed the talent test, completed the course and began trying, unsuccessfully, to sell gag cartoons to magazines. (His first published drawing was of his dog, Spike, and appeared in a 1937 Ripley's Believe It Or Not! installment.) Between 1948 and 1950, he succeeded in selling 17 cartoons to the Saturday Evening Post--as well as, to the local St. Paul Pioneer Press, a weekly comic feature called Li'l Folks. It was run in the women's section and paid $10 a week. After writing and drawing the feature for two years, Schulz asked for a better location in the paper or for daily exposure, as well as a raise. When he was turned down on all three counts, he quit.

He started submitting strips to the newspaper syndicates. In the spring of 1950, he received a letter from the United Feature Syndicate, announcing their interest in his submission, Li'l Folks. Schulz boarded a train in June for New York City; more interested in doing a strip than a panel, he also brought along the first installments of what would become Peanuts--and that was what sold. (The title, which Schulz loathed to his dying day, was imposed by the syndicate). The first Peanuts daily appeared October 2, 1950; the first Sunday, January 6, 1952.

Diagnosed with cancer, Schulz retired from Peanuts at the end of 1999. He died on February 13, 2000, the day before Valentine's Day--and the day before his last strip was published--having completed 17,897 daily and Sunday strips, each and every one fully written, drawn, and lettered entirely by his own hand--an unmatched achievement in comics.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Strips, Poor Presentation, November 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: A Peanuts Christmas (Hardcover)

Any collection of Peanuts strips starts out with five stars, simply for the fact that it's Peanuts. I never fail to smile at Charlie Brown's loveable (and always thwarted) attempts to fit in, Linus's philosophising, and Snoopy's imaginary adventures. However, stars are subtracted for the poor editing of this collection, which seems to have been put together by someone who quickly scanned through every Peanuts strip, pulling out any one that contained the word "Christmas". I didn't so much mind the inclusion of non-holiday related strips, for example, Peppermint Patty handing in a book report in August that was due last Christmas, as I did the incompleteness of several story lines that happened to take place during the holidays. Once the Christmas references stopped, the storylines are cut off in this book, leaving several hanging threads, such as the strips about Snoopy dreading Poochie's visit. Additionally, at least two strips appear twice in this book, giving the impression that it was quickly slapped together to get it into stores in time for the holiday shopping season. What would Linus think?!?

My other gripe is with the packaging. These strips have all been published in other collections, so a real Peanuts enthusiast already has them on the bookshelf. Simply gathering all the Christmas strips together into a high priced hardcover volume doesn't add much to them. It would have been nice to have some commentary on the strips, or perhaps include some stills from "A Charlie Brown Christmas".

In short, this is a good holiday gift for the casual Peanuts fan, but something of a let down for the die-hards. However, you'll still smile while reminiscing about childhood Christmases with the gang, and that can only be a good thing. Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Peanuts Christmas, cartoons selected by somebody, November 18, 2002

By 

C. Wagner "cecilkunkle" (On the banks of the Wabash far away) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Peanuts Christmas (Hardcover)

This is definitely not the Hallmark book ... This is a nice collection, but not a great collection. Many strips were dropped from the continuity. At least three strips were printed twice, indicating either the editor was asleep or there was no editor! We can only wait for a collection of full continuity strips, but, until then, this is still a worthwhile purchase for Peanuts fans young and old. If you already have the Hallmark collection, buy this also. If not, forget that edition.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GOOD BUT INCOMPLETE COLLECTION, January 6, 2005

By 

Tim Janson (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Peanuts Christmas (Hardcover)

I've always loved reading comic strips around Christmastime since it is MY favorite time of the year. In fact, this is the only time of the year that I read some strips as long as they have a Christmas subject. This 160 page collection gathers many, but certainly not all of the Peanuts Christmas strips done by Schulz from the 50's through the 90's. You'll see the gang decorating, having fun, and going through the general stress of Christmas as themes of commercialism are explored as they were in the classic TV special.

Yes, I don't think there are any strips here that have NOT been re-printed in previous collections so if you are a real Peanuts "nut", chances are you've seen these before. But, they've never been presented in a Christmas themed collection before as far as I know so that makes it a nice book to own.

Simply delightful