Holiday Shows, A Canine's Shack, Meaning in Life & Linus' Famous Speech

If there's anything cool about Christmas time, it's the holiday shows.

Do you have a favorite? Frosty? The Grinch? It's a Wonderful Life? A Charlie Brown Christmas? That last one is among the most famous of all.

And did you know it was done on a shoestring budget and the network predicted it would flop prior to release? (So much for executives.)

There's a part in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" where Charlie Brown walks by Snoopy's dog house. (Do you remember that?) Snoopy's trying to win the neighborhood light and decoration contest. And so his dog house is decorated to the hilt as Snoopy hands Charlie Brown a flyer explaining the contest. It's the last straw for Charlie Brown. He cries out, "Oh no, my own dog has gone commercial. I can't stand it!"

And I wonder if some people's lives aren't a lot like Snoopy and his dog house. No, I'm not saying you're a canine living in a shack. But I wonder if we're not just trying to win some kind of a prize (of our own mind's making? ~ some of us?) and in the process our life has lost its meaning. It's just become the next promotion or contest or thing that needs to be bought or person that needs to be impressed or deal that needs to be made ~ and on and on. Where does it end?

Charlie Brown was in search of meaning in life and he found it. We can find it, too.

Happy holidays.

(To watch Linus' famous speech in A Charlie Brown Christmas, click here.)

You might also be interested in:

• Christmas "Meanies" and Their Counterpoints
• How NOT to Let the Grinch Steal Christmas