Perhaps the best commentary on Christmas as it is observed in the United States is a television special made over 50 years ago: A Charlie Brown Christmas. In this 22-minute animated miracle, the congenitally depressed titular hero puzzles over the meaning of the holiday. Nearly all the answers he receives further depress him, be it Lucy’s greed-crazed psychiatrist’s attempts at pathologizing him, or his sister Sally’s letter to Santa in which she offers Father Christmas the option of simply sendingRead more