‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’ Streams Free on Apple TV This Weekend

If you’re looking for a good way to get into the holiday spirit early this year, there may be no better way than to catch the latest Peanuts holiday special on Apple TV. Once again, Apple is streaming A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving to all — whether you’re a subscriber or not.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will be available in Apple’s TV app across all platforms on Saturday, November 15, and Sunday, November 16 — with no subscription required.

Five years ago, Apple signed a deal to become the exclusive streaming home for all things Peanuts — including a back catalog of 60 years of animated specials going back to 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas. These are now available to Apple TV subscribers year-round, but Apple’s deal also resulted in the most celebrated seasonal Charlie Brown classics disappearing from traditional broadcast channels.

These were previously broadcast by for-profit networks, so it’s understandable how that couldn’t continue. As a concession to fans, Apple partnered with PBS to broadcast the classics for the 2020 and 2021 holiday seasons, allowing those who didn’t yet have easy access to Apple’s streaming service to watch them.

It stopped doing that in 2022, making them exclusive to Apple TV. Still, with Apple’s streaming service now available on every platform imaginable, it’s not too hard for most folks to tune in. Apple’s free weekends continue, offering a much broader window to enjoy the shows than a scheduled PBS time slot.

The only downside is that Apple’s pre-holiday showings tend to be well in advance of the actual holidays, making them less than ideal for folks who want to share the pumpkin patch with Linus in It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown on Halloween or prefer to go over the hill and through the woods to grandmother’s house condominium with the Peanuts gang on Thanksgiving Day.

Still, those who want to get an early start on the holidays can enjoy A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving this weekend. The beloved classic, which first aired in 1973, finds Charlie Brown once again hopelessly running to kick Lucy’s football before landing on his back. Later, Peppermint Patty spontaneously invites herself and Marcie and Franklin to Charlie Brown’s house for Thanksgiving, despite the fact that he can’t cook much more than toast and already has plans to spend the day at his grandmother’s. Thankfully, Snoopy saves the day with his own version of a Thanksgiving meal before they all head off to the Brown family’s Thanksgiving dinner.

Over 50 years later, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is still a great way to kick off the holiday season, and even if you don’t subscribe to Apple TV, you can tune in by opening Apple’s TV app on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or installing it on your Android smartphone, game console, or smart TV. It’s also available for streaming in any modern web browser.