# 5030 - 2015 First-Class Forever Stamp - Contemporary Christmas: Charlie Brown Hanging an Ornament on the Tree

U.S. # 5030

2015 49¢ Charlie Brown Hanging Ornament

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Contemporary Christmas

Nominated by Lucy to direct the Christmas pageant, Charlie Brown sets out with Linus to find a tree for the play.  Already discouraged by the commercialization of Christmas, he arrives at the lot only to find it filled with shiny artificial trees made of aluminum.

Popular in the late ‘50s, aluminum Christmas trees came in a variety of colors and sported foil needles that were illuminated from below by a spinning color wheel.  By 1965, they were seen in homes across America.

However, Charlie Brown hunts around and finds a single spruce tree.  “This little green one here seems to need a home,” he exclaimed of the scrawny tree.  Over Linus’ objections, Charlie Brown brings his tree to the play, where the others call him hopeless and stupid.

In the end, however, the Peanuts gang comes to understand the meaning of Christmas and embraces Charlie Brown’s tree.  A new tradition was also born – naming ugly spruce trees after Charlie Brown.  Radio stations and social media sites host fun contests, asking viewers to send in their photos.   And when Reading, Pennsylvania’s tree was deemed ugly, city leaders decided to place a single red bulb on it.  They then planned an event where residents gathered and decorated the city’s “Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.”

Each of the Charlie Brown Christmas stamps features a still taken from A Charlie Brown Christmas.  Art director Antonio Alcalá designed the stamps.

Value: 49¢ 1-ounce first-class letter rate

Issued:  October 1, 2015 – 1 day before the 65^th anniversary of the first Peanuts comic strip

First Day City:  Santa Rosa, CA – at the Charles M. Schulz Museum

Type of Stamp: Commemorative


Printed by: Banknote Corporation of America for Sennett Security Products

Method: Offset printing in double-sided booklets 20


Perforation: Serpentine Die Cut 10 ¾  

Self-Adhesive

Quantity Printed: 50,000,000 stamps

In addition to marking the 65^th anniversary of the first Peanuts comic strip, these stamps marked the 50^th anniversary of the first airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965.  This set was the second issue to honor the Peanuts.  The first came in 2007 (#3507) and pictured Snoopy atop his doghouse dressed as a World War I fighter ace.

These stamps were also issued for National Stamp Collecting Month and continued the long tradition of non-religious Christmas stamps.  The very first U.S. Christmas stamp was issued in 1962.