Way back in 2000, I pitched a comic idea to Stranger editor-at-the-time Jennifer Vogel, involving an update of the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas TV special. As any child of the ’70s can attest, the original Charlie Brown Christmas special is drenched in existential melancholy, from Charlie Brown’s emotional estrangement from the holiday spirit to that heartbreakingly sad, saggy Christmas tree. My goal with the update was to make the understated misery of the original explicit in contemporary terms. However, this was 2000—post-Y2K/pre-9/11—so the miseries of the time may seem a little tame in this age of endless wars, vast international terrorism, and killer storms. (The poverty rate’s jumped to 12.7 percent in the interim as well.) But hopefully the piece still has its soul-crushing charms. Enjoy!
David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest... More by David Schmader