Vinyl Reports

In the 60 years since its initial release in 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas has become not only a family tradition, but also something of a musical heirloom that gets passed on through the generations, thanks to its universally appealing TV special and — of course — its gorgeous, perfect soundtrack LP by Vince Guaraldi. As part of its 60th anniversary celebration, A Charlie Brown Christmas just received a wonderful new 200g 45rpm 2LP UHQR update from Analogue Productions on December 5, 2025, and its aural rewards can easily be enjoyed throughout the year.

We’re betting that a number of you may have received gift cards and/or some kind of a holiday stipend, so getting this UHQR edition of A Charlie Brown Christmas just might be one of the best ways to spend those funds.

Before we dig down into the nitty-gritties of our review, it’s worth noting that A Charlie Brown Christmas is also one of the biggest-selling jazz records of all-time (5 million copies sold to date and counting), has been voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and has even been added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. More importantly, the album itself is musically iconic, sonically timeless, and historically essential.

Official online and press materials for the UHQR edition of A Charlie Brown Christmas re-affirm the ever-crucial DNA underlying its exemplary new production: “Featuring all-analog mastering by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab from the original analog master tape, this UHQR edition is cut at 45rpm, pressed on Clarity Vinyl, and limited to just 2,750 numbered copies. The result captures Guaraldi and his ever-changing cast of session players with unmatched warmth, clarity, and dimension — revealing new layers of detail in one of the most beloved jazz recordings of all time. [. . .] Timed to celebrate both the 75th anniversary of Peanuts and the 60th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas, this release honors an album whose charm and spirit remain as enduring as the holiday itself.”

These UHQR LPs have been pressed at the esteemed Quality Record Pressing (QRP) plant. Each LP comes housed in its own audiophile-grade plastic-lined inner sleeve, and the discs in my copy of this collection were perfectly centered and dead-quiet — essential details for music like this where any variance can result in musical elements wavering out of tune, especially the piano. The UHQR album cover is of sturdy, vintage style, cardboard production, and, inside the box, tip-on, you also get tip-on, old-style gatefold double pocket jackets with scuff-resistant matte finish by Stoughton Printing. Even better, the discs themselves even feature the period-accurate deep-blue Fantasy labels like the original edition did, as seen below.

The SRP, as is standard for UHQR releases, is $150. Though it may be sold out at Music Direct as of this posting, A Charlie Brown Christmas is still available directly from Analogue Productions here, so ordering your copy now instead of later is probably the best bet.

For those of you who are thinking that you’d prefer to have an original pressing of A Charlie Brown Christmas — well, we’d all love to own one of those, wouldn’t we? Thing is, it might not be so easy to do that. These days, original pressings of A Charlie Brown Christmas in good, audiophile-level condition are unicorn-rare to come by, and thus have escalated in value on the collector’s market. For example, as of this posting, there was only one copy of the original album available in NM condition on Discogs — a mono, white label promo selling for $2,500 — while a seller of a VG+ stereo copy is asking for around $500.

In that light, dropping $150 for the new UHQR edition of A Charlie Brown Christmas that will almost certainly sound worlds better than those particular OG pressings seems very fair and reasonable.

For additional context, there have certainly been endless reissues of A Charlie Brown Christmas pressed on vinyl in a rainbow of colors, silver and gold foil cover variants, and patterned and picture discs over the years — most recently, there are animated zoetrope variants (as seen above). Me, I even have version with a spiffy motion lenticular cover. There was also a nice 2LP edition released in 2022 via Fantasy/Craft Recordings with a new stereo mix of the core album and a second disc filled with a wealth of studio outtakes. However, as far as I can tell, there has not been a true audiophile restoration of A Charlie Brown Christmas, until now.

By now, I suspect you’re wondering just how good this new edition really sounds. In short, these UHQR LPs are a wonderful listening experience, for sure. The differences are right there between your ears — a bevy of little details and nuanced fine tuning of the music. I’m hearing studio sounds I never really noticed before, such as Guaraldi’s piano foot-pedal shifting on “What Child Is This” (LP1, Side 1, Track 2). If you listen closely, you can hear the children singers’ enunciations much better, rhythmically rolling their tongues in time behind the trio’s playing on “My Little Drum” (LP1, Side 1, Track 3). And I especially love how Jerry Granelli’s ride cymbal seemingly floats in mid-air in a rounder, more three-dimensional way during “Linus and Lucy” (LP1, Side 2, Track 1).

I could go down a deeper rabbit hole of hair-splitting moments like those, but the simple fact is that Guaraldi and his support musicians sound incredibly lifelike and realistic on the new UHQR edition of A Charlie Brown Christmas. There is a depth of field overall that makes everything sound more three-dimensional. It’s not just about stereo separation, but also where the other players are situated relative to Guaraldi’s piano.

By the way, there is a wonderful interview with engineer Matthew Lutthans explaining the incredible production hurdles that had to be overcome to create this new UHQR edition of A Charlie Brown Christmas. It helps to explain why this new version of the album sounds so very much better than pretty much any other version most of us have heard up until now. Rather than repeat Lutthans’ words here, we figured we’d share that YouTube clip below so you can see/hear it all directly from the man himself.

Indeed, there are so many more nuanced details to listen for on this new A Charlie Brown Christmas UHQR edition. The decay of Guaraldi’s piano notes are rich, long, and hearty on “Christmastime Is Here (Instrumental)” (LP1, Side 2, Track 2). The bass sounds are fuller, lower-reaching and more present than other versions of this album that I’ve heard to date. The high end is also super-appealing, crisp, and bright, so you can really feel the that final “tannnnggg” hit on the ride cymbal at the end of the aforementioned “Linus and Lucy” (LP1, Side 2, Track 1) as never before, yet without any sort of sense of harshness that appears on prior editions.

Trying to keep this an apples-to-apples comparison, for contrast, I played the earlier-noted 2022 stereo remix — which I reviewed here on AP back on December 16, 2022 — and it is indeed nice in its own right, but it just doesn’t have that sense of studio air and presence that’s on the UHQR edition. I also gave another spin to that genuinely fun, earlier mentioned animated zoetrope vinyl edition of the album that was released back on September 26, 2025 — and it is indeed perfectly fine for non-critical background listening, but, comparatively, the music sounds flat and less vivid.

I think it is also worth offering some kudos to the producers of the new UHQR edition for maintaining essential sequencing, disc-to-disc. On the original single-disc LP version of A Charlie Brown Christmas, the sequence winds up the pacing of Side 1 with the instrumental version of “Christmas Time Is Here,” only to take up that same song’s vocal version on Side 2. With so much vinyl real estate to play with on the UHQR edition, a less-thoughtful production team could have easily stuck both versions of the song back-to-back on one side, which would have been all wrong. Fortunately, the UHQR preserves the original, essential album-flip sequencing experience, this time between LP1, Side 2 and LP2, Side 3.

Oh, and in case you didn’t know, some of the tracks on A Charlie Brown Christmas actually began as non-holiday songs. “Linus and Lucy” had its first presentation as a part of the 1964 Fantasy LP Jazz Impressions of “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” (Side 2, Track 1). Meanwhile, the sweet bossa nova interpretation of “The Little Drummer Boy” that appearing on A Charlie Brown Christmas as “My Little Drum” (LP1, Side 1, Track 3) began its life as “Menino Pequeno da Bateria” (Side 1, Track 2) on Vince Guaraldi’s collaboration with Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete on February 1965’s Fantasy LP, From All Sides.

Every time I listen to A Charlie Brown Christmas, I am reminded of its timeless musicality. And even though there are holiday themes present, I find myself inevitably listening to this album at different points during the year, simply because I like this music that much. I will typically pull it out for a spin for those moments when I feel reflective, or just need a little grounding reminder of good times, love, and happiness. (Footnote 1)

So, don’t think that getting this new UHQR version of A Charlie Brown Christmas will be a once-a-year investment dividend. There is no doubt that this edition of such a classic recording can — and will — more than amortize its cost with enjoyable plays all year around. And, for those of you who also revel in this sort of thing, both LPs in this UHQR release can also be used as demo discs to show off the sound capabilities of your high-end playback gear, no question. Our collective advice: get yourself a copy of Analogue Productions’ A Charlie Brown Christmas UHQR edition now, and then have yourself merry little playback sessions with it all year long.

Author bio: Mark Smotroff is an avid vinyl collector who has also worked in marketing communications for decades. He has reviewed music for eCoustics, among others, and you can see more of his impressive C.V. at LinkedIn.

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Footnote 1: AP editor Mike Mettler adds: Happy Boxing Day, everyone! Like Mark, I also enjoy listening to A Charlie Brown Christmas on vinyl at various points throughout the year, just because it’s that good. This is one of those special releases that just transcends the intended season — and the new UHQR version of it is nothing short of definitive. As I said over in my final holiday box set recommendations story that posted here on our outgoing sister site Sound & Vision on December 20, 2025, most especially sublime to my ears are the two tracks that reside on LP1, Side 2: “Linus and Lucy” and “Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental),” both of which feature Guaraldi’s soothing piano lines buttressed by Jerry Granelli’s intuitive snare and brushwork. My ratings for this most excellent UHQR edition of A Charlie Brown Christmas parallel Mark’s, as I too give the Music an 11, and the Sound gets an 11 as well. And the packaging also rocks, Charlie Brown.

VINCE GUARALDI
A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
200g 45rpm 2LP (Fantasy/Analogue Productions)
MUSIC: 11
SOUND: 11

Original album produced by Vince Guaraldi via Lee Mendelson-Bill Melendez Production
Original album (mostly) recorded at Whitney Studios, Glendale, California
Reissue produced by Chad Kassem, Analogue Productions
Reissue mastered for vinyl by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab
Reissue vinyl manufactured at Quality Record Pressing (QRP), Salina, Kansas

LP1, Side 1
1. O Tannenbaum
2. What Child Is This
3. My Little Drum

LP1, Side 2
1. Linus And Lucy
2. Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental)

LP2, Side 3
1. Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal)
2. Skating
3. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

LP3, Side 4
1. Christmas Is Coming
2. Fur Elise
3. The Christmas Song