Things Only Adults Notice In A Charlie Brown Christmas

The problem that kickstarts A Charlie Brown Christmas is the title character's own lack of satisfaction with the holiday. He tells Linus, "Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy," and he repeatedly complains that the holiday has grown too commercial for his taste. This reaches a new level of disgust when he sees Snoopy putting up a bunch of decorations on his doghouse and realizes the beagle is decking his halls for a Christmas light contest that promises a cash prize. 

By the end of the special, we learn that Snoopy not only entered the contest, but he managed to win first place. 

Now, to be clear, Snoopy's decorated doghouse is very charming. He put up lights all around the roof, arranged a couple of spotlights, hung a festive chain or two, and even topped it all off with a star. There's nothing wrong with his decoration, but it does amount to little more than a strand of lights and a couple of baubles hanging on a doghouse. Were there no full-sized houses decorated well enough to compete with him? Is Christmas spirit really in such short supply that Snoopy could out-decorate the humans in town? If so, maybe Charlie Brown is right to be so depressed.