"This little green one here seems to need a home."
And with that, Charlie Brown picks out a scrawny tree that even his friend Linus doesn't see fitting "the modern spirit" of Christmas. Lucy, he says, will not be happy.
As you likely know, the tree embodies the spirit of A Charlie Brown Christmas, a TV special that has proven to be timeless and is now airing in its 50th year.
Since 1965, that scrawny tree has been compared to many real-life Christmas trees that would never be seen on a holiday greeting card. And if you have one in your past — or in your den — we want to see it.
Post your photos with the tag #sadtree on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, and we'll put together some of the best examples for a blog post Tuesday afternoon. Feel free to include the "backstory" on the circumstances.
If you're looking for inspiration, consider that last week, officials in Reading, Pa., were planning to replace the "ugly" tree that had been put up downtown with a nicer one.
The city now says they'll decorate the tree with a lone red bulb, in an homage to A Charlie Brown Christmas.
If that's not enough to get you sorting through old holiday photos, consider what Jeannie Schulz, widow of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, tells Morning Edition about the TV special.
"It points out our greed, our commercialism," she says. "And it points them out with humor so we can laugh at them — laugh at ourselves."
ABC will air the 30-minute A Charlie Brown Christmas twice before Christmas: on Tuesday, Dec. 2, at 8:30 p.m. ET, and two weeks later, at 8 p.m. ET on Dec. 16.
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