- - The “Peanuts” Classic 'Christmastime Is Here' Was Written on the Back of an Envelope 'in 5 Minutes' (Exclusive)

Victoria EdelDecember 23, 2025 at 6:00 AM

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Charlie Brown (left) and Linus in 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' -

Jason Mendelson, son of legendary Peanuts producer Lee Mendelson, tells PEOPLE how his father wrote the lyrics to 'Christmastime Is Here' in five minutes

Lee's lyrics became a key part of A Charlie Brown Christmas

Jason said he and his brother are honored to continue the legacy of their father, who died on Christmas Day in 2019

Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack for 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas is now a classic, but when he first wrote the score for the TV special, there was one thing it needed: some words.

Jason Mendelson, the son of Peanuts producer Lee Mendelson, tells PEOPLE how his dad ended up quickly writing the words to the one song in the special with words: “Christmastime Is Here.”

After a lightning quick production process that saw Lee, Guaraldi, director Bil Melendez and Peanuts creator Charles Schulz work hard at creating the first Peanuts special, they watched their work back.

“The opening to the show that waltz, Christmastime is Here, was great, but it was a little slow,” Jason, 47, says. It was decided it needed some lyrics.

Jason says his dad “he went and called everybody. He called everybody in LA and said, "Can anybody write lyrics for us?" And nobody could do it. Nobody responded or could do it.”

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'A Charlie Brown Christmas'

Lee had written some words for the unaired 1963 documentary A Boy Named Charlie Brown. It came down to him. “So my dad sat down,” Jason says. “On the back of an envelope, he wrote the rhymes. ‘Christmastime is here, happiness and cheer, fun for all, what the children call their favorite time of year.’ He wrote that out in five minutes.”

He sent the lyrics to Guaraldi, who sprang into action. “They went over to the local church, they got the choir to sit down and sing those words,” he said. “And it was done in a rush, with no plan, in an emergency, and that became the lead song for the whole show and has lasted forever. . . . But it was all done on a napkin in five minutes.” The song has been covered by scores of artists, including John Legend, Tony Bennett, Mariah Carey, Rosemary Clooney, Trisha Yearwood and Kenny Loggins.

“Guaraldi wrote, ‘It's beautiful, it's wonderful,’ and if you look at the album, it's on there twice. How many albums have their song twice? There's the instrumental version and then the lyrical version with the wonderful kids who did the singing.”

For Jason, it’s another example of how A Charlie Brown Christmas was actually helped by its brief production time frame. Jason says after his father sold A Charlie Brown Christmas to CBS, he called Schulz, who everyone called Sparky, he called him with the news.

“And Sparky said, ‘What's that?’ And my father said, ‘Something you and Bill and I have to write this weekend.’ And they got together and they put the show together,” he says. They didn’t have time to second-guess their decisions. They went with their own sense of what worked.

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Lee Mendelson in 2015

Jason notes the partnership between the four men lasted until their deaths. Guaraldi died in 1976 at the age of 46. Schulz died in 2000 at 77. Melendez died at 91 in 2008. Jason’s father Lee died in 2019 on Christmas Day. He was 86.

Jason says his father’s favorite word was “serendipity,” and that serendipity found him the day his dad died. The family had planned to spend Christmas dinner together as always.

“And that morning I got the call and I went right straight to his house to be there, and on the way up I put on the radio, and I normally have sports talk on or something else,” he said. “But I put on the radio and they were playing 'Christmastime Is Here' as I drove to be there for the last time. And I thought, ‘Well, this is horrible, but it's also wonderful to have this legacy and this association that's happening regardless, and will continue to carry on.’ ”

Jason says that when he hears “Christmastime Is Here” now, “I hear my father's voice again.” But he thinks his father and his collaborators knew that tehir work on Peanuts “was going to outlive all of them and that they'd left the world that great legacy and piece of art that would continue.”

“And to be able to help and continue that legacy now is the joy of mine and my family's life,” he says.

Jason and his brother Sean now produce Peanuts records, including new collectible vinyl printings of Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas album. “We've really enjoyed that,” Jason says. “We've tried to steward that and keep up the integrity of that to the extent we can, and then also celebrate for that next generation.”

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”