A SNOOPY CHRISTMAS

15 December 2001

Disneyland may be the happiest place on earth, but the happiest place in Davis has got to be the home of the entertainment editor for The Davis Enterprise.

I wrote about this party last year  and as I read back over it, I thought about Secra's recent self-exposé on her discomfort with parties. Is it any wonder she and I get along so well? We understand each other.

My normal reaction on being invited to a party is to groan and wonder what sort of excuse I can use to get out of it. I went to this party last year very uncomfortable. I hadn't been on the Entertainment staff very long and knew nobody. I hardly even knew the editor, except that I'd seen him and had a "hello, how are you?" relationship with him for about 20 years.

I felt it was good PR to attend this party, and so we went. The editor himself is a bit of a shy, retiring person and I suppose that it goes with the territory that a lot of creative types learn to write because it's much easier to express yourself in print than it is face to face. So the party was structured so that you could enjoy yourself a lot and never have to speak much to anyone, unless you wanted to.

The house itself was a treasure trove of discovery. He must have every single Peanuts thing ever created--posters, stuffed animals (from the smallest to the most huge), figurines, magnets, towels, clocks, Christmas tree ornaments, etc, etc, etc. Upstairs, downstairs and in m'lady's chamber was wall to wall (literally) Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, and all the others.

The one thing I regretted was having no camera with me. If I had only known....

But tonight I knew, and so I went armed with camera. I also had met some of the other columnists and had a slightly more than nodding acquaintance with them, so I was actually looking forward to the party.

The house is difficult to miss. It's the only house in this part of the block that has any lights at all, and you can see it from several blocks away.

As last year, you open the door into Peanuts land. The front room is dominated by a huge tree. Every single ornament on the tree is a Peanuts character or theme or something. The shelves on the bookcase are lined with Peanuts memorabilia (and a few tribbles), and an enormous Snoopy sits on the couch next to the tree.  Little Snoopy lights hang from all the bookcases all around the room, and a Snoopy on some sort of rotating arm whirled around the head of the giant snoopy on the couch.

People stood around a fireplace "burning" on the television screen in a room filled with more Peanuts memorabilia. In fact, one of the games was to count how many Snoopys there were in that one room (90).

Upstairs is the meat of the collection. The walls are lined with Peanuts collectibles in every form possible--plates, cups, statues, ornaments, puzzles, posters, books, and I'm sure much more. One entire room is devoted to stuffed Snoopys and a 3-shelf cabinet with Peanuts-themed bells.

The "games" were in the form of quizzes--match 2 lines from a list of Christmas carols (verse 3) with the name of the carol, answer a 10-question test about Christmas lore, count the number of Snoopys in the living room, and Check six Santa photos to find the one that was different. I managed to get all the Christmas trivia right and Walt found the different Santa picture, so we both went home with prizes.