A Charlie Brown Christmas Obsession

Being overseas for the holidays is essentially a depressing affair. There is no way to describe the cultural "-isms" that go into holiday traditions until they're gone. For example, more than one American holiday, such as the 4th of July, whizzed by unnoticed because there were no sale ads on TV to remind me. Sad, but true.

When I was living in Philly, I don't think I gave the Charlie Brown cartoon special more than a passing "awwww, isn't that cute". It certainly didn't drudge up the loads of nostalgia I now feel hearing the music or watching the program. Now, the whole of my Christmas season gets channeled into "A Charlie Brown Christmas". It all started with the soundtrack, which I bought when I first got hooked on jazz in college. I dig Vince Guaraldi's takes on the holiday standards and there are few holiday albums I enjoy more. This soundtrack goes wherever I go – Philly, Cairo, Oslo. Most unfortunately, the CD disappeared in one the many airport raids on my suitcase sometime last year.

My attempts to purchase the soundtrack in Oslo have utterly failed. My queries are met with blank looks and indifference. Granted, such a query prolly wouldn't be met with enthusiasm either in the US, but at least I know the salesperson and I share a solidarity of experience. We know the story, we know how pathetic Charlie Brown is and we know that Snoopy always steals the show. In the days before video and DVD, what kid didn't look forward to seeing the Christmas special that came only once a year? The anticipation was huge. This and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" practically launched the Christmas season.

In a lot of ways, it was easier to be in Cairo for Christmas than it is to be Oslo. Christmas didn't really exist in Cairo and the holiday was what we ex-pats made it. Here, there is real Christmas, but it's not my Christmas. All of the things the Norwegians do to celebrate the holiday remind me constantly that something is missing, that something is not quite right. While it's been fun to introduce Charlie Brown and the Grinch to my friends, it doesn't even come close to filling the void the holiday season creates. All of the small details that make up the bigger picture of the holiday season are gone: people complaining that Christmas advertising starts too early, people complaining that it's too commercial, the latest economic indicators based on Black Friday, the Hanukah greetings, the Kwanzaa greetings, the non-committal non-religious Holiday Greetings, the food, the tasty holiday cookies, the nasty holiday cookies, the traffic, the dopey Santa Clauses that turn up in every mall, the food bank drives, the call for volunteers and money, the annual reports on how not to get buried under holiday credit card bills, the new TV Christmas specials, the old TV Christmas specials, the irritating radio ads, WPRB's holiday broadcast, the decorations, et al.

This year, Amazon will deliver the little bit of Guaraldi magic I'm missing. This year, I'll come one step closer to making Norwegian Christmas my own with Anders' family. And this year, I'll miss my family so much it hurts, just as it does every year I'm not with them for the holidays.