14 Funniest Photos of Kids Who Hate Santa

During production, producer Lee Mendelson thought they’d ruined Charlie Brown with this Christmas special.

Kathy Steinberg, who voiced Sally Brown, had not yet learned to read at the time of production. She had her lines fed to her, often a word or syllable at a time.

Producers cast child actors in the roles. The advertisers wanted to use adults imitating children, which was common practice at that time.

At one point in the special, Lucy refers to Charlie Brown simply as Charlie. This is the only time she does this in any of the TV specials: every other time it’s Charlie Brown.

There is no laugh track in the special, which was common for programs at that time. Instead, Charles Schultz wanted the action punctuated by jazz music. This soundtrack has since become an iconic part of the holiday season.

The show’s original sponsor was Coca-Cola, and the original broadcast included some brief animated sections which included the company’s logo.

These have been edited out of subsequent broadcasts and the video release.

In one scene, Linus crashes into a sign advertising Coca-Cola. If you watch current versions, you’ll notice that we never see where Linus lands.

It was important to Schultz that there be a bible verse about the birth of Jesus read during the special. Linus, who is notorious for needing his blanket, drops it during this moment. The idea of putting a bible verse in the special met with much resistance.

None of the children who voiced the characters received credit at the end.