"Not Only Is Christmas Getting Too Commercial, It's Getting Too Dangerous"

Each year, when I listen to the subdued sound of the piano and hiss of the jazz drum and the meandering bass, all embellished with the engaging crackle of time, I wish for one thing.

Not a bike or a Mace Windu lightsaber or an Xbox 360.

Not wonderful things like extra-potent egg nog or world peace or pictures of children who've wet their pants sitting on Santa's lap.

Each time I hear the effortless simplicity of "A Charlie Brown Christmas," all I wish is that this could be the first time I've heard it. Or the first time I've seen Linus stick his tongue out to catch the snow and say, "Mmm, needs sugar."

We spend a lot of time trying to make Christmas into Christmas. It's a lot of work.

But quiet your mind and listen to the perfectly deliberate imperfection of Earth-bound cherubs singing. Watch as a decades-old cartoon casts off pretention and moralism to capture the essence of a life worth living, spoken through a thumb-sucking theologian carrying a security blanket.

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The problem with a lot of Christian programming is that it lacks depth. It grossly lacks depth, in fact. It fails to simply offer the message as a passive invitation and leave it up to the audience to feel it for themselves.

Charles Schultz had to know this when he refused 40 years ago -- yes, since 1965 it's appeared on network television -- to dub in canned laughter. He didn't fear the quiet pauses that move a piece a little slower but allow a breath for reflection.

He also used real children's voices, and only a few were actually trained actors or speakers. Jazz was unheard of for a Christmas special.

Reading scripture on TV was revolutionary back 40 years ago. You would think that wouldn't be the case, given how many people complain about how we can't say Merry Christmas these days and worry that Christmas will become extinct for some non-specific holiday.

It will never happen. At least "A Charlie Brown Christmas" never will. Well, never's a long time, but the demand for the easily accessible yet authentic spiritual experience will always be there.

Simple yet woven and profound.

The story goes that the producer of the cartoon who helped Schultz fight off the demands of comformity and dilution wrote the words to "Christmas Time Is Here" on the back of an envelope because he had to make a minor concession to CBS and provide at least one song with lyrics as was custom with Christmas specials.

It was an afterthought from a man who wasn't a musician. But the words sound like anything but an afterthought. The spirit of the whole project was infectious.

You could almost say it was divine intervention.