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In The Making of a Tradition: A Charlie Brown Christmas, producer Lee Mendelson wrote that, during the 1964 holiday season, his family read Hans Christian Andersen's "The Fir Tree," a fairy tale about a sapling that longs for greatness. When it came time to create the 1965 television special, animator Bill Melendez suggested that they might "do something involving a tree." "Sparky [Schulz's nickname] immediately seized on that idea and said, 'We need a Charlie Brown-like tree.' "
And the rest is history. Charlie Brown's humble Christmas tree has become a holiday icon. People can immediately conjure up a picture in their mind when one refers to their "Charlie Brown tree." |