Let me digress and state for the record that I grew up with Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, and the Peanuts gang in my daily reading of the newspaper comics and the televised specials throughout the year of the antics of the Peanuts characters as they, mostly, showed how they celebrated holidays throughout the year.

I recall even seeking out the Peanuts compilation books when I was about eight-years-old to make sure that I knew all about Charlie Brown and what he had been up to.

And it certainly was a Christmas season tradition in our household, and since I was a child, to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas as it aired on CTV (Canada) or CBS (United States) the first Wednesday of December, usually. I remember how my mother would chuckle at the Snoopy dance and the dancing of the other Peanuts characters in the big hall while they rehearsed for their upcoming Christmas play.

I still get a warm feeling from watching the scene where Linus says 'Lights please!' and then repeats that biblical verse to inspire Charlie Brown. And I loved the soundtrack to the show so much I bought it about ten years ago and play it every holiday season on the CD player.

But, getting back to what happened with my nine-year-old son this year.

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I mentioned to him a couple of weeks ago that A Charlie Brown Christmas was going to be on television in a few days.

And he immediately and innocently questioned - 'Who's Charlie Brown?'

As I sat there stunned at his question, all I could do was reply 'Oh, he's just a cartoon character you wouldn't know about anyway.'

After that brief discussion about a tradition I experienced for over 30 years I suddenly realized why he responded the way he did.

That is, why would he have any knowledge of who Charlie Brown is?

He doesn't read the comics in the daily paper, especially since we don't get the paper in our household. And add to that the fact the Charles Schulz died several years ago and the comic strip is forever relegated to reruns only, usually in the classified section of the paper.

He doesn't go to the library to read books anymore, ever since he discovered the Internet.

He certainly doesn't choose to view any of the periodic Charlie Brown specials that are air on television when he can be watching Yu-Gi-Oh, Totally Spies, Duel Masters, or The Fairly OddParents on Nicktoons.

Besides, why would a child today want to watch a cartoon that is full of mostly talking and discussions about life issues?

And, why would a child today want to watch a cartoon that doesn't involve some sort of quick action scenes, duels, and battles for good to fight its way out to conquer evil?

And would a child of today want to watch a cartoon that is poorly drawn and has characters that aren't inspiring enough to relate to only several times a year when they can get their dose of Spongebob Squarepants on Nickelodeon 19 (yes, 19!) times a week as of this writing?

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So, why am I writing this?

Well, I guess it's to get off my chest the fact that I see a Christmas tradition, the A Charlie Brown Christmas television show, coming to a slow demise with the advent of the Internet and the proliferation of other more 'exciting' forms of stimulation on today's cartoon television shows for kids.

It's too bad that we still don't live in the simpler times when there were only three major television stations and a family was virtually forced to gather around the television on the first Wednesday night in December to watch a timely, and unique (now classic) television show that was meant to inspire and provide hope to all who viewed it during this sometimes, downcast time of year.

Now if only I can get my nine-year-old into some other modern tradition that he will take into his adulthood to warmly remind him of the specialness of this season and how much his Dad cared about him to give him this special memory each holiday season.

Hmmmm....

Goodbye A Charlie Brown Christmas, hello... A Spongebob Squarepants Christmas?

Uh, no. ANYTHING but that. ;-)

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For those of you who celebrate, Happy Holidays.

Thank you kindly.

Andre Best