Super-Cool Saxophonist Charlie Brown Plays a Sweet Serenade

Poor Charlie Brown is the perpetual underdog. His beagle may be Joe Cool, but “cool” is not a word I would usually associate with the round-headed kid in the jaggedy-striped shirt. However, in this year’s Wireless Peanuts Band from Hallmark, he’s lookin’ super-smooth as he cradles his saxophone.

Like the other three figures in this series, Charlie Brown is sturdy plastic, and he stands atop a brown base with a wooden floor pattern on the top. That base is just over an inch high, just under three inches wide and about three and a half inches long. The contrast of the darker brown with the light brown on top adds to the attractiveness of the figure.

Charlie Brown wears brown shoes, but everything else about him is vibrant and Christmassy. His pants and scarf are green, while his coat and Santa hat are red. Against all that bright color, Charlie Brown’s skin looks paler than usual. On his face, two tiny black eyes gaze out, one on either side of his bulbous nose, while the black mouthpiece of his golden saxophone is inside his mouth.

Press the small brown button near the front of the platform, and you will be able to hear Charlie Brown play The 12 Days of Christmas, along with It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, one of only two religious songs the band plays. He bobs forward and backward as he plays, giving the impression that he is putting all of his soul into this performance. If you press the button again mid-song, the music will stop; press it once more, and he will begin to play the alternate tune.

Of course, what makes these decorations so very fun is the fact that they communicate with each other. Charlie Brown can play by himself even if you have all four figures; all you need to do is turn off the power on the other three. You can also turn off the power on one or two of them and experiment to see which accompaniment sounds best with him. I would say the player who stands out least when Charlie Brown is in the spotlight is Lucy, whose flute is higher in pitch but somewhat similar in tone to the saxophone.

If another character is playing, Charlie Brown will jump right in after a few seconds, provided he is on. When we first brought Lucy home, we took her out of the bag and pressed the button. Charlie Brown was in the kitchen, near my brother, and he started playing out of the blue. As he had never seen the interactive quality of these figures before, that startled him. It’s a nifty way to be taken by surprise.

Charlie Brown was the second of the figures that Hallmark released. Like the others, he costs $29.95 if you buy him and nothing else, but I don’t know why anyone would do that. He’s $14.95 with another purchase, and that purchase can be something as inexpensive as a greeting card. He comes with three AAA batteries loaded into the bottom of his base, and unless he’s in display mode, which is activated by holding the play button down for several seconds, he shouldn’t need to have his batteries replaced before the season is over.

Whether Charlie Brown is the lead instrumentalist or the beguiling back-up, he is an undeniably awesome part of this quartet, which is one of the cleverest promotions I’ve ever seen from Hallmark. I always thought Charlie Brown was a jolly good fellow, and it’s great to see him here as a nice guy who doesn’t finish last – except when it comes to providing that long, last note that lingers in the ears when the song concludes.