So I planned to do a big unboxing of my copy of the newly-released A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Official Advent Calendar. And I actually filmed it all… well, tried to, but in addition to my lack of cinematographic skills, it turns out my cameraphone was stopping and restarting the video on its own whims. So rather than hit you with my choppy awkward video missing many key moments, you get to celebrate it through the ancient artform of text.

But…. if you’re getting this calendar for yourself, and you don’t want anything spoiled, you may want to stop here. In fact, I’ll put a to-be-continued separator here… I think that the folks who read this via email may have to click on the title to get the full story.

My Jewish background has not given me a lot of experience with advent calendars, to the degree that I had to check with my goyishe wife to find out whether you’re starting with #1 and working up or starting with #25 and working down. As almost all of my readers are likely to know, you start an advent calendar at #1, keeping with the date of the month… and making an utter lie out of the packaging calling this a countdown to Christmas.

Behind the 25 numbered doors of this trifold items are a handful of different types of things. There are things like the very first day, which gives you a sound button. Press it…

…and nothing happens. At this point, you look around the object and realize there is a small on/off slider switch on the back, Slide that to on, press the sound button again, and you get a sweet little piece of the music from special.

Other dates open to reveal quotes from the special.

And as I go through these, I realize that they are more or less in order that they appear in the special. So we have turning pages, we have text and images from the special (or to be more accurate, images from a past book adaptation of the special), in order… does this qualify as that most wonderful of things, a book adaptation of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Hmmm, I shall have to ponder, while I keep flipping through.

A few of the dates have a small gift inside… a Christmas ornament.

They are all flat, paper ornaments, with scenes from book adaptations of the special.

But as we go through this all, we’re counting up to the big day itself. What could the final surprise, for Christmas day itself, be??

It’s A BOOK ADAPTATION OF A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS! How did it know just what I wanted?! Oh, this is going to be a merry Christmas after all!

(For those wanting more detail: this is a 2.5″x3″ 72 page paperback, with art from the Tom Brannon adaptation… the version without Peppermint Patty and Marcie added in. I’ve not yet checked if it kept an earlier version of the text.)

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