Mark Your Calendars: Here's When ‘Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!’ Will Air on ABC

Ring in the new decade with Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang: Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! airs on ABC on Thursday, Dec. 26 at 8:00 p.m. CST and we can’t wait to break out the eggnog, snuggle up, and tune in. The classic movie first premiered on January 1, 1986, and while it isn’t as well known as some of the other Peanuts holiday flicks, the plot line is just as sweet as you’d expect.

Courtesy of Amazon

Over the Christmas break, Charlie Brown has been assigned a book report on Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace—a book he has yet to read. And with Peppermint Patty’s big New Year’s Eve party fast approaching, he spends more time daydreaming about the party than he does reading the book. Eventually, he compromises by bringing the book to the party—and ends up falling asleep before midnight.

While the plot line sounds a bit melancholy (it is Charlie Brown, after all; he will never kick that football!), the movie is funny and heartwarming. One Amazon reviewer left the flick a 5-star rating and commented, “Wonderful family fare and so comical. My kids can't stop laughing throughout the entire thing, and they ask to watch it again and again.”

If you can’t watch it live, Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! is available to stream on Amazon Video, and it's also part of Snoopy’s Holiday Collection DVD, $9.99, Target, which includes four additional feel-good seasonal films: Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales, I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown, Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown?, and Happiness Is... Peanuts: Snow Days.

Whether you’re hosting an early New Year’s Eve gathering or celebrating a quiet night at home, this is a great family-friendly way to celebrate the arrival of 2020.