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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.
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I also highly appreciate Walt Kelly's Pogo. As someone who prefers to draw cartoon animals to cartoon people, I think Pogo is the best example of a large, diverse cast of fun animal characters. While there are some well-known politically satirical episodes in Pogo, during Christmastime Kelly tended to stay light and silly. He often would come up with new versions of Christmas carols, such as the one featured in the first strip here, "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie, Walla Walla Wash and Kalamazoo."
In these three strips, we see Porky Pine, a sad porcupine orphan, being shown the true spirit of Christmas by being included in the festivities even though he thought he wasn't. Warms my heart.
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Again, I love Krazy Kat, mainly because of strips such as this, with the slightly overwrought narration, Krazy's dialect, and the ridiculous idea Krazy has that Ignatz Mouse throwing a brick at him is a sign of affection.
I also enjoy the implication that people who don't believe in Santa are heretical sinners, and therefore are evil, selfish brick-throwers.
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While I love Winsor McCay and all he did, another one of my favorite early 20th century cartoonists is George Herriman, who most famously drew the strip Krazy Kat. He didn't do too much in the way of Christmas comics, but he did a couple. This one shows how generous Krazy Kat is to a dog family. He gives them some "brickwets" to make a fire and keep them warm, even though he has to sleep outside in the winter cold as well.
Krazy Kat has long been one of my favorites, because of the fun drawings, the clever dialogue, the interesting dialect that always comes out of Krazy's mouth, and the incomprehensible love triangle between Krazy, Ignatz, and Officer Pup.
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Dream of the Rarebit Fiend was another comic strip that Winsor McCay drew prior to Little Nemo. There is a long tradition of cartoonists reusing ideas, and here is an early example of that. You may notice that this one bears a striking resemblance to the Little Nemo strip from December 13, 1908. Of course, instead of Nemo hanging from the roof and freezing, it was originally Santa Claus (or at least John dreaming that he is Santa Claus).