Wow, Sara did an amazing job on the paint! That looks just like the image. I have several Snoopy books and along with Calvin and Hobbes, the Peanuts are my favorite strip. The tradition here is Christmas Eve with my side, Christmas morning at home and Christmas Day at my wife's side. We both have wonderful families and it's a real blessing. 🎄🎄🎄
All of this! I'm not at all religious and neither is my wife but we both love the festive feel of Christmas. As a kid my family were all big fans of the Peanuts so I was too. I'm now passing that tradition on to my kids.
In our house we have the Peanuts Christmas book, watch the holiday specials each season, and have ample Peanuts-themed Christmas decorations, including a dancing animatronic Snoopy!
We all need to make more things. I love this. My younger brother and I were obsessed with Christmas growing up. And Christmas movies. Charlie Brown, Frosty, Rudolf, Santa Clause is Coming to Town, Muppet Christmas Carol. We did go to church on Christmas Eve until we were too teenagery for it. Singing "Silent Night" at the end of the service, by candlelight, was my favorite. I was never too teenagery for that part.
Decorating was my jam. As a kid, I always spearheaded the trimming of the tree. Still doing that now even though I have my own kids. Gotta get the lights on there just right. No gaps, baby. 🎄
My family had this ridiculous decoration we lovingly called "The Cheesy Ball". My dad ran a hardware store for 20 years and I think a customer made it for him. It's essentially a massive globe made out of clear solo cups with colored lights stuck in it. It's hideously beautiful and the lights in it still work. My mom recently sent a picture. Still Cheesy after thirty-five years.
And music always gets me in the spirit. There are a few holiday songs out there that make me cringe, but the ones I'd listen to on repeat for days include The Eagles, "Please Come Home for Christmas", Vince Vance and the Valiants, "All I want for Christmas is you", and literally anything by Johnny Mathis. 🎤
Boy, I grew up in Michigan and would be okay never seeing snow again (except in the mountains). We get snow here and there, but it always succumbs to the steadily falling rain ...
My family had a yard display growing up. My mom was very 'crafty' and was always making stuff. It started with a train full of toys cut out of plywood on the ground. Then came five snowmen/woman for my parents and us three boys. Then came a sleigh and reindeer, also made of plywood and beautifully painted by my mom. The sleigh and reindeer were mounted on the roof, with the base of the cutouts in the gutter and bracing against the roof. The Christmas tradition was the installation of all this, with appropriate lighting, mostly by my dad but with my help. One year, there was a big pre-Christmas storm. I remember hearing the sleigh and reindeer bouncing on the gutter they were sitting in, along with the bracing on the roof. In the morning, everything was in pieces on the lawn, and that ended the tradition.
Love it! I love when people make their own decorations and forgo the store bought ones. I didn't grow up with a ton of Christmas decorations outside. Lights were the extent of it. We moved so much that we "cleared out" Christmas decorations on a regular basis. BUT, I do have a favorite ornament. In 1976 my Grandmother decided to make ShrinkyDink Santa ornaments. It's a santa and she wrote our names on them. She spelled my name wrong. Every time I pull out that ornament I smile. And also, Linus and Lucy is my ringtone, but all year round.
Love the Snoopy Tom - I always remember you loving Snoopy as a kid. You failed to mention how you always tried find all your presents and figure out what you were getting before Christmas morning! I never understood that - I preferred to wait for the Christmas morning surprise!
That was weird, wasn't it--my compulsion with knowing my gifts in advance? I think it was about 10 years ago that I finally realized that it's better to be surprised. Slow learner.
Isn’t it funny how we patchwork traditions and themes to make Christmas special and unique to our families?
Love this so much, beautiful job! Snoopy is one of my fave Christmas cartoons (Bible story aside), and the part with him making fun of Lucy being a crank never fails to crack me up. Have to ask...what’s the rubber coating to weatherize?
Ha, looks good! Interesting what you say about Christmas being experienced through the filter of our experiences. I like the way you word that, it's so true. I never really thought about until now. Makes perfect sense.
I hate Christmas. Not so much hate, but rather do everything in my power to avoid it and not acknowledge its existence. In past years, I've jumped on a plane a week before the 25th and flown to a non-Christian country, and just sat it out until the new year, without having to see any lights or hear any singing.
Since being with my wife though, that kind of plan gets harder and harder to get away with (although I did do that the first few years we were together. She went to her family, I disappeared to foreign lands). Now I have to spend the holidays with her family, which I refuse to complain about in a public forum, but I do really miss those days of not having to be around festive people.
My wife also adds every year to the amount of decorations she gets past my protests. I don't even protest anymore. I imagine by next year she'll even have sneaked a tree into the flat. For now she's got lights up around the windows and I keep noticing little things hanging from the corner of pictures on the walls. Don't even say anything anymore. Married life, gotta compromise I guess.
If we have kids one day I don't mind doing all the Christmas stuff. I get that for children it's a magical time of year and all that. I'm not a total destroyer of joy!
Funny how life and marriage change you, isn’t it? I told myself when I had kids I’d dispense with the Santa bullshit, just as my parents had dispensed with the baby Jesus stuff, but once we had two kids in hand, Santa seemed like such fun and so we willingly misled our kids, right up to the point where they were too savvy to jolly us along with their pretending any more. What the hell!
There’s holidays I dislike (hate would to too harsh for me): Halloween and Fourth of July (Independence Day). I do my best to just make myself scarce on anything related to those.
How I got on to Snoopy I don’t know: maybe it’s cuz he was wise and cool and fun and yet also a little detached.
I'm with you on Halloween, too. What a ridiculous waste of time that is. Fourth of July I definitely wouldn't be into either, if I were American. I'm not exactly what you'd call patriotic. (Still never nice seeing England lose to France though).
I think you have to do the Father Christmas stuff for kids though, even if just because all their friends are getting it in their homes. My wife's family is Catholic (the mother is devout), so my compromise will be (I imagine) let her indulge the kids in nativity stories and whatnot, but draw the line at any kid of mine getting dragged into the church for confirmation, communion or any of that other brainwashing bullshit. And just trust that once they get to about the age of ten, they're intelligent enough themselves to work out that the likelihood of an angel visiting a virgin with news of a child from God is exactly as believable as a flying reindeer with a red nose. (And if the kid takes after their father, that the likelihood of there being such a thing as God is also as likely as there being a flying reindeer with a red nose, flying a bearded old man who never ages and wears a costume designed by Coca Cola). But who knows what the future holds?
I did love the Christmas movies as a kid. Particularly Home Alone, and also the two Raymond Briggs' cartoons, Father Christmas and The Snowman. They made a nice distraction from the carnage caused by alcoholic parents :)
Love the Snoopy! And I'm completely with you about the 4th of July ... probably would be about Halloween, too except that it's my wife's birthday - at least the decorations are sorted each year. When I saw the snow photos I was a bit envious, having grown up in Western NC when it actually snowed there. But we're having a cold spell here in England - and after four days I've still got an inch of snow on the ground. Just like old times - and very Christmassy!
Wow, Sara did an amazing job on the paint! That looks just like the image. I have several Snoopy books and along with Calvin and Hobbes, the Peanuts are my favorite strip. The tradition here is Christmas Eve with my side, Christmas morning at home and Christmas Day at my wife's side. We both have wonderful families and it's a real blessing. 🎄🎄🎄
All of this! I'm not at all religious and neither is my wife but we both love the festive feel of Christmas. As a kid my family were all big fans of the Peanuts so I was too. I'm now passing that tradition on to my kids.
In our house we have the Peanuts Christmas book, watch the holiday specials each season, and have ample Peanuts-themed Christmas decorations, including a dancing animatronic Snoopy!
Wonderful post. Makes me feel very merry indeed.
Just showed this post to my kids. Big fans.
Oh good! Gotta start ‘em early on the peanuts. Glad you liked it Amran
We all need to make more things. I love this. My younger brother and I were obsessed with Christmas growing up. And Christmas movies. Charlie Brown, Frosty, Rudolf, Santa Clause is Coming to Town, Muppet Christmas Carol. We did go to church on Christmas Eve until we were too teenagery for it. Singing "Silent Night" at the end of the service, by candlelight, was my favorite. I was never too teenagery for that part.
Decorating was my jam. As a kid, I always spearheaded the trimming of the tree. Still doing that now even though I have my own kids. Gotta get the lights on there just right. No gaps, baby. 🎄
My family had this ridiculous decoration we lovingly called "The Cheesy Ball". My dad ran a hardware store for 20 years and I think a customer made it for him. It's essentially a massive globe made out of clear solo cups with colored lights stuck in it. It's hideously beautiful and the lights in it still work. My mom recently sent a picture. Still Cheesy after thirty-five years.
And music always gets me in the spirit. There are a few holiday songs out there that make me cringe, but the ones I'd listen to on repeat for days include The Eagles, "Please Come Home for Christmas", Vince Vance and the Valiants, "All I want for Christmas is you", and literally anything by Johnny Mathis. 🎤
Johnny Mathis!! Oh yeah, that was in our repertoire. I’d love to see the Cheesy Ball, that sounds fantastic.
What an impressive construction! And it certainly helped me get into the holiday spirit! Also, I’m even more motivated to see Schulz’s notes:)
That's very cool! Much better than the inflatable version... lol
I'm also envious of the amazing lack of snow...
~Graham
Boy, I grew up in Michigan and would be okay never seeing snow again (except in the mountains). We get snow here and there, but it always succumbs to the steadily falling rain ...
Yeah - getting sick of it myself. Would be so bad if I didn't have to snowblow it...
~Graham
And over here in the south-east corner of UK I'm thinking 'WOW, LOOK, SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!' 🤣
Come get it! You can have as much as you like... https://twitter.com/pgrahamstrong/status/1602078622445092865?s=21
Absolutely WONDERFUL - I love love love everything about this!
Aw, thank you!
My family had a yard display growing up. My mom was very 'crafty' and was always making stuff. It started with a train full of toys cut out of plywood on the ground. Then came five snowmen/woman for my parents and us three boys. Then came a sleigh and reindeer, also made of plywood and beautifully painted by my mom. The sleigh and reindeer were mounted on the roof, with the base of the cutouts in the gutter and bracing against the roof. The Christmas tradition was the installation of all this, with appropriate lighting, mostly by my dad but with my help. One year, there was a big pre-Christmas storm. I remember hearing the sleigh and reindeer bouncing on the gutter they were sitting in, along with the bracing on the roof. In the morning, everything was in pieces on the lawn, and that ended the tradition.
Oh man, that sounds amazing! it’s going to take a few years for us to build up our Peanuts collection to that level
Love it! I love when people make their own decorations and forgo the store bought ones. I didn't grow up with a ton of Christmas decorations outside. Lights were the extent of it. We moved so much that we "cleared out" Christmas decorations on a regular basis. BUT, I do have a favorite ornament. In 1976 my Grandmother decided to make ShrinkyDink Santa ornaments. It's a santa and she wrote our names on them. She spelled my name wrong. Every time I pull out that ornament I smile. And also, Linus and Lucy is my ringtone, but all year round.
I lied. It was 1973 that she made the ornament.
Wow, we made ShrinkyDinks too ... but I had no idea those could stand the test of time.
Love the Snoopy Tom - I always remember you loving Snoopy as a kid. You failed to mention how you always tried find all your presents and figure out what you were getting before Christmas morning! I never understood that - I preferred to wait for the Christmas morning surprise!
That was weird, wasn't it--my compulsion with knowing my gifts in advance? I think it was about 10 years ago that I finally realized that it's better to be surprised. Slow learner.
Isn’t it funny how we patchwork traditions and themes to make Christmas special and unique to our families?
Love this so much, beautiful job! Snoopy is one of my fave Christmas cartoons (Bible story aside), and the part with him making fun of Lucy being a crank never fails to crack me up. Have to ask...what’s the rubber coating to weatherize?
Gorilla Waterproof Patch and Seal. Pretty amazing stuff. It's like painting with rubber.
Ha, looks good! Interesting what you say about Christmas being experienced through the filter of our experiences. I like the way you word that, it's so true. I never really thought about until now. Makes perfect sense.
I hate Christmas. Not so much hate, but rather do everything in my power to avoid it and not acknowledge its existence. In past years, I've jumped on a plane a week before the 25th and flown to a non-Christian country, and just sat it out until the new year, without having to see any lights or hear any singing.
Since being with my wife though, that kind of plan gets harder and harder to get away with (although I did do that the first few years we were together. She went to her family, I disappeared to foreign lands). Now I have to spend the holidays with her family, which I refuse to complain about in a public forum, but I do really miss those days of not having to be around festive people.
My wife also adds every year to the amount of decorations she gets past my protests. I don't even protest anymore. I imagine by next year she'll even have sneaked a tree into the flat. For now she's got lights up around the windows and I keep noticing little things hanging from the corner of pictures on the walls. Don't even say anything anymore. Married life, gotta compromise I guess.
If we have kids one day I don't mind doing all the Christmas stuff. I get that for children it's a magical time of year and all that. I'm not a total destroyer of joy!
Funny how life and marriage change you, isn’t it? I told myself when I had kids I’d dispense with the Santa bullshit, just as my parents had dispensed with the baby Jesus stuff, but once we had two kids in hand, Santa seemed like such fun and so we willingly misled our kids, right up to the point where they were too savvy to jolly us along with their pretending any more. What the hell!
There’s holidays I dislike (hate would to too harsh for me): Halloween and Fourth of July (Independence Day). I do my best to just make myself scarce on anything related to those.
How I got on to Snoopy I don’t know: maybe it’s cuz he was wise and cool and fun and yet also a little detached.
Ain't that the truth!
I'm with you on Halloween, too. What a ridiculous waste of time that is. Fourth of July I definitely wouldn't be into either, if I were American. I'm not exactly what you'd call patriotic. (Still never nice seeing England lose to France though).
I think you have to do the Father Christmas stuff for kids though, even if just because all their friends are getting it in their homes. My wife's family is Catholic (the mother is devout), so my compromise will be (I imagine) let her indulge the kids in nativity stories and whatnot, but draw the line at any kid of mine getting dragged into the church for confirmation, communion or any of that other brainwashing bullshit. And just trust that once they get to about the age of ten, they're intelligent enough themselves to work out that the likelihood of an angel visiting a virgin with news of a child from God is exactly as believable as a flying reindeer with a red nose. (And if the kid takes after their father, that the likelihood of there being such a thing as God is also as likely as there being a flying reindeer with a red nose, flying a bearded old man who never ages and wears a costume designed by Coca Cola). But who knows what the future holds?
I did love the Christmas movies as a kid. Particularly Home Alone, and also the two Raymond Briggs' cartoons, Father Christmas and The Snowman. They made a nice distraction from the carnage caused by alcoholic parents :)
my weather insiders tell me snow this weekend get snoopy ready
I'm a huge Peanuts fan, and I envy your beautiful Flying Ace Snoopy. Did you see the tribute to Peanuts that Jonathan Franzen wrote in The New Yorker? It's really good: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/11/29/the-comfort-zone
I did see that (again). I tried not to duplicate it, but I feel exactly like him.
Love the Snoopy! And I'm completely with you about the 4th of July ... probably would be about Halloween, too except that it's my wife's birthday - at least the decorations are sorted each year. When I saw the snow photos I was a bit envious, having grown up in Western NC when it actually snowed there. But we're having a cold spell here in England - and after four days I've still got an inch of snow on the ground. Just like old times - and very Christmassy!