Linus Fills the Air With Christmas Cheer

In 2011, Hallmark introduced one of the most charming and ingenious sets of Christmas decorations I have ever encountered. Entitled the Wireless Peanuts Band, this merry group consisted of four beloved characters, each of which played the primary melody on two songs and backup on the rest. As long as they were within close range of each other, the figures interacted with each other without the aid of cords or any other connecting device. We had so much fun with the quartet that we decided to leave them up all year.

We were delighted, then, to discover that a fifth member had been added to the set we’d considered complete. As soon as Mom and I spied Linus, we snatched him up, and he now sits happily on the piano with the rest. Like them, he wears a red Santa hat with white trim. His shoes are brown, while his pants and scarf are red and his pants are green. In his hand, he clutches a trumpet, and unlike the other two characters playing air-powered instruments, he wears a wide smile.

Linus is made of hard plastic and stands about four inches tall. He sways forward and backward at the point of the bottom of his coat when he feels the spirit in the music he is playing. Like the others, he stands flat on a platform made to look like a wood paneled floor. This platform is about three and a half inches long, three inches wide and just over an inch tall. It is the same size as the others in the series, except that Schroeder’s is slightly longer to accommodate his piano. Near the front is the button that you must push to activate each song.

Because Charlie Brown already plays the saxophone, Linus’s trumpet doesn’t add something dramatically different to the group, but it is still a welcome addition. What’s more, he brings with him two songs of his own: Joy to the World and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. I find that Lucy’s accompaniment shines most clearly in the first and Schroeder’s in the second, but the group as a whole sounds nice together.

Encountering Linus in December was a sweet surprise prompting me to wonder whether other characters might turn up in future years. Now that we’ve got Charlie Brown, Schroeder, Snoopy, Lucy and Linus, I could imagine them adding folks like Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Sally and Pigpen. While the sound might become a bit cluttered with so many participants, I certainly would snatch up any others they add to the series. I also find myself hoping they’ll do something like this for other sets of characters such as the Pooh gang. For now, though, I am very happy with the five characters I have, and I look forward to them serenading me throughout the year.