As of: December 18, 2025 11:42 a.m
A yellow glass ball with Charlie Brown’s zigzag pattern hangs in our Christmas tree. On Peanuts’ 75th birthday, the little comic hero reminds us why Christmas is a festival of hope.
A yellow glass ball. On it the striking black zigzag pattern, like the Charlie Brown T-shirt. This ball simply had to go into our Christmas tree. Because this year the little boy from the comic series Peanuts is celebrating his 75th birthday. And Christmas is a birthday party?! Plus, Charlie Brown reminds me of something very Christmassy. He has a Christmas heart.
A loser with hope in his heart
The first comic with Charlie Brown appeared in 1950. He is the head of the Peanuts, a gang of children in a small American town. The creator of Peanuts is the American Charles M. Schulz, whose father comes from Stendal in Saxony-Anhalt. All of Peanuts’ children reflect a part of his personality, says the artist. This also applies to Charlie Brown, the boy with the big smile in the yellow T-shirt with a zigzag pattern. He is the Job of my first reading passion and has to endure a number of catastrophic messages in the Peanuts comics.
His dragons end up in the dragon-eating tree every time. In baseball he loses every game; and he never misses the red-haired girl he loves so much. Even his dog Snoopy is cooler than him. Yes, Charlie Brown is a loser. That makes him so relatable because we all know it, says Charles M. Schulz. And yet Charlie Brown never gives up. He builds new dragons, continues to train his team and still has a crush on the little red-haired girl. Charlie Brown remains hopeful. Like the biblical Job. In other words: totally Christmassy. Because Christmas is a festival of hope.
Charlie Brown and the Ghost of Christmas
Charlie Brown and his Christmas heart. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Charles M. Schulz originally wanted to become a Protestant pastor? Charlie Brown shows what the Bible means by hope (Romans 5:5). Hope is the flower of love that God places in the manger and in our hearts at Christmas. That’s why the yellow glass ball with the Charlie Brown T-shirt pattern simply has to go into our Christmas tree.
Cross, heart or anchor? That’s the name of the church’s column on NDR. Every week the radio pastors and editors award a cross for faith, a heart for love or an anchor for what gives hope.
