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The fact is, no matter how bad they are, most every kid is going to end up on Santa's "Good" list and get at least one present from him on Christmas. I'm sure many a parent has wanted to give their child a lump of coal, but thought better of it because they want them to have a good Christmas. Perhaps that means that Christmas should not only be a time of giving, but also forgiving.
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This has always been my favorite Calvin and Hobbes Christmas strip. It evokes all the feelings of Christmas and Christmas Eve, as well as the feeling of friendship, the central element of Calvin and Hobbes. It's also interesting because it's quite different from any other Calvin and Hobbes strip. Instead of a rowdy six-year-old getting into trouble or philosophizing, it's simply a calm scene described in a poem.
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When I was a kid, my love of comic strips and desire to be a cartoonist came from reading Calvin and Hobbes. The older I got, the more I appreciated it, and the more ways I was able to appreciate it. The writing and artwork were of a quality that had not been seen in newspapers for many years, and after it ended, it would still be a few years before any comic strip would compare to it, at least in my mind.
One thing that Bill Watterson always did at Christmas season was show the difficulties Calvin always had with Santa Claus. As a six-year-old kid, he obviously believes in Santa, and often writes letters to him, as we see here. He is often troubled by the need to be on Santa's "Good" list, though his only motivation for doing this is to receive more presents. This should give us pause to consider our own actions. Are we being good because we want to be good, or to receive some kind of reward for doing so?
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The holidays are supposed to be a time of joy, but often they are a time of disappointment. Sometimes, like in this strip, it's not about the gifts but about the friends and connections that we have, or don't have. Thankfully, Charlie Brown shows us that, despite his disappointments, he can move on and make something good out of his holiday season. I wish I was as resilient as he is.
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They should have made Linus give a speech or read a poem or something. He doesn't seem to have a problem speaking in front of the crowd, just singing. Of course, all the people in the audience probably think it's funny and cute, but we aren't given their reactions in the strip. We are only shown the worry and tension that Linus has, as well as the frustration and anger of Lucy.
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Nothing like a good old-fashioned nativity play, complete with beagle sheep. Really, I don't have much else to say about this one. I just thought it was cute. I guess that's the mark of a good comic strip: at times it can be deep, philosophical, and heavily relatable to everyday struggles, but at other times it can, and should, just be cute.
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Charles Schulz is probably on every cartoonist's list of influences, and he's certainly on mine. Peanuts has had an enormous impact on our culture. Everyone knows Charlie Brown and Snoopy, and we all understand their plight. We were all children once. We've all had those same worries and disappointments, and the same joys and triumphs. As a side note, I think it's telling that newspapers still pay to run reruns of Peanuts every day (under the banner "Classic Peanuts"), when they're normally not happy to run reruns of any comic strip.
Schulz would sometimes inject religion into his strips, usually coming out of the mouth of Linus. I imagine Linus grew up to be a priest or pastor of some sort. Here, he reads the Christmas story from Luke, though I'm not sure which English translation he's using.
Now, as a theist and Christian, I do believe that it's important for us, as Christians, to remember Jesus at Christmastime and try our best to make Him the focus of our Christmas celebrations. That said, I think there's still some room for Santa Claus, so I would have to slightly disagree with Linus here. It's a lovely comic strip nonetheless.
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Walt Kelly was well known for making his own versions of well-known Christmas Carols. "Deck Us All In Boston Charlie" was probably his most popular, and is featured in this strip. Of course, there were other strips which gave us the "Twelve Days of Crispness," which included a parsnip in a pear tree, as well as the lively "Good King Sauerkraut." "Boston Charlie" actually has six verses, which you can read by clicking here. Learn them and sing them at your Christmas party. I dare you.
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Going back to the idea of even the greatest cartoonists reusing their old jokes, here we see a Pogo strip similar to the one I posted yesterday. It has been reworked a bit, and some dialogue has been added (I like the addition of "See if I remember how it goes"), but in essence it's the same strip. Still, it's a good one.
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Again we see Porky Pine, the perpetually grumpy, promising to smile for Pogo and Albert. It apparently takes some preparation and thought, as it isn't something Porky does very often. Unfortunately, no one gets to see it, and Walt Kelly only has to draw three panels (I tell you, the darkened room is the best way for cartoonists to save time and effort without looking lazy). While this is the case, I think it does show that while Porky normally is grumpy, he at least is generous enough at Christmastime to try to give us a gift like that.