I remember being excited to watch this on TV every Christmas when I was a kid.  We own the collection on DVD so now we can watch it any time.  

Trivia 

The monster matrix was created specifically for this segment.  I originally tried to do Linus' full body on the mauve stage floor (like in the TV show) but the size limitation would have meant you could not see his mouth movements.  I thought seeing Linus and Charlie speak was more important so I went with just heads.  Viewer feedback tells me that I made the right choice.

Segment Facts

Show: Christmas

Introduced: 2018

Author: This segment is 99% Stuart with 1% consulting from Julie.

Audio: Extract from TV Special "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

Duration: #.## Edited for Length

Theme/Color

I chose to use shades of blue (including aqua), green and white for this segment.

My Approach to Sequencing

• Just Heads - I originally tried to do Linus' full body on the mauve stage floor (like in the TV show) but the size limitation would have meant you could not see his mouth movements.  I thought seeing Linus and Charlie speak was more important so I went with just heads.  Viewer feedback tells me that I made the right choice.

• "Lights Please" - For the beginning of the sequence  everything is dark except the monster matrix with the conversation between Charlie and Linus, then on Linus' command lights come on all over the yard as if someone is standing at a breaker panel flipping switches to turn them on.

This is another story segment with no music, so it was necessary to sequence based on the words.  

Please refer to the My Approach to Sequencing section of my description of our God Bless the USA segment for more details on how we do this. 

Monster Matrix

For this segment, I split the monster matrix into two sections.  I show images on the right as Linus narrates from the left.  Charlie appears at the right to ask the question and then again at the close of the segment. I've included an image sheet of the primary images used on the monster matrix in the images section below.

Narration - Talking Faces

The most prominent part of this segment is the fact that Charlie and Linus narrate the segment.  To accomplish this we use images of the speakers with different phonemes (mouth positions) to simulate speaking.  Because it looks more human if the speaker also blinks occasionally, we needed versions of the faces with the eyes closed.  I've provided, in the image section below, image sheets for both Linus and Charlie with eyes open and closed.