The new book edition of A Charlie Brown Christmas from Running Press has a couple of special features to make it a Fiftieth Anniversary Edition. It comes in a slipcase (you know, a box that the book slides in and out of), and it includes a removable poster of this image:

And if you see that, and if you’ve spent as much time with book adaptations of A Charlie Brown Christmas, you might go “oh, it’s the same Tom Brannon-illustrated adaptation that Running Press has used repeatedly for years now,” and you’d be almost right. Almost.

There is one significant difference.

Peppermint Patty and Marcie have been eliminated.

For those of you who have watched A Charlie Brown Christmas for years but haven’t read or memorized everything that’s been in this blog over the past fifteen years, well, congratulations on having a relatively balanced life, but you’re probably saying “but Peppermint Patty and Marcie weren’t in A Charlie Brown Christmas“, and you’d be right. Neither had even been introduced in the strip when the special was made. But when this adaptation first appeared in 2008, Peppermint Patty and Marcie appeared in various scenes, with Peppermint Patty having been given some dialogue.

Now they’re erased. When a character is really needed, PPatty’s been replaced in both image and text by Violet (who is wearing period-appropriate clothing, in contrast to Lucy’s more comfortable attire from later in the strip’s run.) In other places, there are just new characterless areas in the image, even if the other characters have been slightly rearranged to cover it.

I love weird li’l things like this.

This book can be ordered for immediate shipping.

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