'Happiness is Holiday Traditions' Review: 'The Snoopy Show' Combines New and Old

Nothing makes it feel like Christmas time more than a holiday special, and Charlie Brown is a classic. 58 years after “A Charlie Brown Christmas” aired for the first time on CBS, the Peanuts characters are still returning to television with new holiday stories. This time, a special episode of Apple TV+’s “The Snoopy Show” titled “Happiness is Holiday Traditions” is bound to bring joy to children and make even the adults laugh.

Though many expressed disappointment when the Charlie Brown specials stopped airing on network television in 2020, one perk resulted from Apple TV+ acquiring the rights to the Peanuts television legacy: They started churning out new content again in 2021 with “The Snoopy Show.” And this year’s holiday special demonstrates the full potential of the show by featuring not only a well-written storyline, but also amusing callbacks to previous well-known Peanuts Christmas specials that make it feel as though it’s honoring Christmas cheer for all generations.

The episode strongly resembles 2002’s “Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales,” one of the more well-known specials that aired after “A Charlie Brown Christmas” for almost 20 consecutive years on network television. Both episodes are made up of shorter segments reminiscent of comics strips due to their small, piecemeal form.

The first of the three segments in the episode is the titular “Happiness is Holiday Traditions.” This segment follows Snoopy (Terry McGurrin) and his sidekick Woodstock (Rob Tinkler) as they search for the perfect tree topper. This story shows off Snoopy’s endearing individuality. He ditches his owners in favor of his own rogue quest and sings (more like howls, really), dances, and swindles hot chocolate and cookies from Peppermint Patty (Lexi Perri) and Marcie (Molly Lewis) along the way, delighting the audience by roping everyone into some act of mischief.

It can be jarring at first to see such crisp animation on characters most frequently seen in a movie from the ’60s, but the style remains true to the two-dimensional comic strip that inspires the show. The characters remain simply drawn, looking almost the same in both iterations, but the actual outlines are slightly blurrier and the colors are a little muted in the older special.

The next segment, “Winter Wonderland,” becomes slightly meta about the Peanuts universe as it follows Charlie Brown (Etienne Kellici) and many other familiar characters as they walk by a few department store holiday window displays. Sally (Hattie Kragten) and Lucy (Isabella Leo) complain about the repeat displays from the previous year. Charlie Brown defends this choice, saying, “Well, it is a holiday classic,” to which Lucy responds, “Haven’t they ever heard of a twist on a classic?” The plot seems to favor Lucy’s opinion, concluding with relief that Woodstock gets stuck briefly in the display to spice things up. They still give Charlie Brown his moment, even reflecting the sentiment in episode title, but his argument feels undercooked.

Only adults will notice the irony of this “reimagining” of the Peanuts characters celebrating Christmas calling out repeats. Lucy also argues that “there’s a difference between tradition and syndication,” which seems like an odd word choice for the child audience, possibly trying to poke at the topic of the syndication of the Peanuts universe on Apple TV+. Though the argument isn’t the most witty, it’s definitely amusing and satisfying to have an allusion to existing Peanuts television.

The final segment, “Spike’s Old Fashioned Christmas,” follows Snoopy as he goes to visit his brother Spike, who fans will recognize from “I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown,” which also aired on ABC for more than a decade.

The segment has much less dialogue than the previous one since it primarily follows the animals. However, McGurrin shines as he depicts Snoopy out of breath after pulling a sleigh, howling in frustration when he can’t find an outlet for Christmas lights, and his sniffling cries from his breakdown at his inability to decorate for Christmas in the desert. His performance is key to properly conveying the humor and relatability of the character, and this aspect is this episode’s greatest success. Snoopy’s emotions are over dramatic and ever changing, which makes him funny but also an exaggeration of human emotions viewers can empathize with.

The music by Jeff Morrow is also stellar, covering many instrumentals of Christmas classics and including a medley of songs mixed with the Snoopy Show’s typical background score. The songs are subtle, but still nostalgically evoke the Christmas feeling. The medley never lets one song go on so long that it takes over the scene, and they experiment with the diegetic music when Snoopy himself plays the kazoo or howls a tune to create a fun take on the classics, bringing out the childlike, enjoyable tone of the episode.

Regardless of a few callbacks to familiar Peanuts specials, “Happiness is Holiday Traditions” certainly tries to do its own thing. “Linus and Lucy” — the song that many would probably consider the theme song of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” — is missing, and there are no outright references to previous works. Though including these could have been fun fan-service elements, the spirit of the show still resonates making this special a worthy inclusion in the long line of Charlie Brown Christmas specials. The characters make the audience laugh in their struggles to find the meaning behind Christmas, through decorating, baking cookies, and spending time with family, keeping themes from old specials alive and hitting the universal struggles of the holidays.

Though we can thank Apple TV+ for making a new episode happen, one has to wonder whether the switch to exclusively streaming will allow this special to reach a larger audience. Historically, specials like these are shows that accidentally end up on the TV rather than what the viewer actively seeks out, especially when they don’t have the same resonance as their predecessor. It’s concerning that older generations are more likely to miss out on new content that could bring out the same holiday cheer because of both Peanuts’ and the viewers’ own reliance on streaming, rather than network TV.

—Staff writer Margo A. Silliman can be reached at margo.silliman@thecrimson.com.