A Charlie Brown Christmas, which first aired on Dec. 9, 1965, was the first full-length animated special created by Charles Schulz, featuring the Peanuts gang. Even though the comic strip was popular in the early 1960s, it wasn’t until the iconic characters appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1965 that studio executives took an interest in bringing them to the national stage.

With Coca-Cola as the sponsor, Schulz - along with Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez - developed the outline for the film. They agreed that a key component to their project was creating a soundtrack where jazz uniquely coalesced with traditional music. Having worked with jazz pianist, composer and Grammy Award winner Vince Guaraldi on music for a 1963 documentary about Schulz, the group decided to bring him back for the Christmas special.