Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang Are on a Mission in Their New Holiday Special

November 30, 2021 E Jazz Reporter

On a snowy day, Charlie Brown once again comes to Lucy for psychiatric help. — Lucy and Charlie Brown playing a game modeled after a deeply flawed healthcare system.

Heartwarming as Peanuts stories tend to be, Apple TV+’s upcoming For Auld Lang Syne animated special tells a story about just how stressful and emotionally exhausting the holiday season often ends up being. Though Lucy Van Pelt prides herself on doling out mental health advice to her friends, Auld Lang Syne finds her in sore need of a bit of her own medicine after a disappointing Christmas.

Auld Lang Syne’s first trailer details how, after Lucy’s grandmother ends up being a no-show on Christmas day, the young girl interprets her absence as a sign that the older woman doesn’t love her. Rather than outright beating herself up about it, Lucy resolves to kick the New Year off right with the party to end all parties—the sort of gathering meant to remind her that she is, actually, surrounded by people who adore her. Cheering one’s self up with a party’s a fairly solid idea, and the only thing standing in Lucy’s way of pulling the shindig off is Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang’s personal problems.

Ahead of Auld Lang Syne’s Apple TV+ debut on December 10, It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown—the 1992 special created and written by Charles M. Schulz, featuring various Peanuts vignettes set during the holidays—is also coming to the streamer, starting December 3.