Watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” for free on Apple TV+ Saturday, Dec. 14 and Sunday, Dec. 15. Here, Snoopy and the PEANUTS gang join Macy's Herald Square to unveil their Christmas windows celebrating the 50th anniversary of the holiday classic, "A Charlie Brown Christmas," Friday, Nov. 20, 2015, in New York. Diane Bondareff/AP

Apple TV Plus is offering this weekend "A Charlie Brown Christmas" special for free to everyone with the Apple TV app.

Is it because it so powerfully taps into that deep vein of melancholy Christmas can evoke, even — or especially — in the face of the culture’s drumbeat insistence that we be jolly?

Follow me on X. TV Answer Man, do you know how we can watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special this year? It seems like it’s always difficult to find. My kids really love it. — Jamie, Norfolk, Virginia.

As I type this, I'm sipping on chai tea, wrapped in a blanket covered in hedgehogs holding candy canes, while twinkly lights hang on the wall behind my head. That's right baby, it's Christmastime!! (Well,

Wow, talk about a change that’s still hard to accept. A Charlie Brown Christmas has been gracing our living rooms on network TV since 1965. According to People Magazine, it premiered on CBS to 15 million homes back then.