October brings a few exciting things every year. It’s Halloween season, the air is cooler and crisper, the colours are all warm and lovely, and I have to accept the fact that another full year has passed for me. I thought about what I should do as a special something extra this year to commemorate my birthday alongside the ongoing season specials, and I decided to start with something I absolutely love.

     I have always been a massive fan of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts series, collecting various books and DVD releases that we have seen along the way (the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack I have on vinyl is played constantly during the holiday season). The ‘Complete Peanuts’ collection has been a big get for me, and is a wonderful chronicle of such a long running comic series. It’s funny, cute, heartwarming, and everything in between.

     Peanuts is one of those things that has always seemed to be a part of life. Even though I’m not entirely sure what turned me to it or made me interested enough to actually explore it, I can still feel safe in saying it was probably either the Halloween or Christmas special. I mean, how could it not be? The franchise has been a juggernaut for so long, the specials so integral to annual traditions, that you can’t really avoid it at all. Yet Peanuts, unlike some other series, never really felt like it over stayed its welcome to me. I’m always happy and delighted to see the characters pop up in different forms, and they always make me feel like a kid again no matter what.

     I have been planning a variety of specials based on it and felt this would undoubtedly be the best place to start, as I thought that kicking things off with the specials would have been a bit too obvious.
     I had originally intended to start this at the beginning of the month, with the Sunday of each week seeing the next Peanuts movie posted. But I decided to start it tomorrow, on my actual birthday, as it made more sense. So tomorrow will see an article posted on the first theatrical Peanuts film, A Boy Named Charlie Brown. Snoopy, Come Home and Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown will follow on the 14th; Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown on the 21st; and the 28th will finish off our look with the 2015 release of The Peanuts Movie. We’ll see how they hold up, what we love about them, and what made us laugh or tear up or find sweet. It’ll be a nice change of pace with our usual Halloween celebration, and I hope you enjoy the trip as much as I do!