‘Tis the season for giant 12-foot skeletons in yards, pumpkins galore, and endless debates. Not the presidential kind, though. The “best of Halloween” kind, where you finally learn all of your family and friends’ true feelings about things that seemed so innocent at first — like candy corn or Reese’s Pumpkins, or whether a house has scary decorations or cute ones out. You just don’t think people are going to flip out this hard over their own Halloween preferences, but when someone asks me for my opinion on the best Halloween movie, and I say, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” I am reminded real quick.
So, let me go ahead and make it clear for you: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is 100% the actual best Halloween movie.
I grew up with Hocus Pocus and watched it year-round. You don’t have to sell me on the allure of Jack Skellington and Sally, either, and when I hear the theme to Halloweentown, my heart skips a few beats. But nothing beats the absolute magic and nostalgia of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
Of course, growing up with this movie (when it aired just once during the month of October on cable TV) makes me a little biased. (But isn’t everyone choosing their favorite anything a little biased?) The film was created in 1966, which means it’s had a wealth of generations to impart its loveliness on, and that little nugget right there is, I’m sure, 50% of the reason why I love it so much. It’s like a little time capsule!
I honestly get emotional thinking of my own dad watching this as a little boy with my grandparents — then just young parents trying to figure out their own holiday traditions, too — and what a privilege it is to still have my Granny here, sharing with me what it was like to watch this movie nearly 60 years ago with her own babies. The movie is a family tradition for so many, and that kind of staying power has to be admired.
But much like my love for candy corn, my love for this Charlie Brown classic is mostly mocked. But listen — it has everything a Halloween movie should (and does) have, like a significant lack of parental involvement. If you’re going to turn your nose up at this classic film because Linus is freezing, asleep in a pumpkin patch at 4 a.m., and his big sister Lucy has to go get him, then I guess you’ve never noticed that in Hocus Pocus, kids are running all over Salem like orphans.
Find it horrifying that the kids are mostly mean to Charlie Brown? Pretty much 50% of the plot of Casper is that his uncles — his own uncles — are horrible bullies to this little baby ghost.
Worried that Linus’s belief in The Great Pumpkin means your children will also expect some kind of mythical Halloween figure to leave them presents? Surely you must also skip The Nightmare Before Christmas for fear your kids will think an actual Oogie Boogie lives out there in the world somewhere.
Sure, I’ll give you that Snoopy’s little pseudo-dream sequence about being a WWI flying ace is trippy, but it’s not much of the movie. Before you know it, you’re back at Violet’s Halloween party, where kids are bobbing for apples and, yes, making fun of Charlie Brown.
My oldest daughter is now 10, and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown became one of her many obsessions when she was about 3. To this day, hearing the opening notes of the film’s music and seeing that gorgeous red and gold color palette makes my heart ache. Her 5-year-old and 2-year-old sisters are now just as obsessed, and there’s just something about this specific holiday movie lasting me all the way through motherhood that gets me in my feels.
Plus, all my girls can recite Sally’s rant to Linus and frequently shout, “You owe me restitution!” which is just a good thing for little girls to learn.
It’s also worth noting that the film feels so special because it’s hard to find. We’re able to watch it over and over again because we bought it off of Prime Video years ago when my oldest started asking to watch it in August and we knew it wouldn’t be on TV yet. These days, you can find it on Apple+, but up until recently, it was one of those movies you could only catch at a specific time of the year on a specific network. Much like the Christmas claymation movies we all hold so dear, there is just something about It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown that pulls you back to a simpler, sweeter time.
Even if someone does drop a rock in your treat bag.
