"Christmas Time Is Here" is perhaps the most emotionally resonant composition from Vince Guaraldi's 1965 album A Charlie Brown Christmas. This instrumental version of the song, which also appears on the album in a vocal arrangement, features Guaraldi's piano solo over a 32-bar AABA form in F major in a gentle waltz tempo. Guaraldi's improvisation over his own composition is a model of taste and sensitivity, his left hand providing lush harmonic support while his right traces melodic lines of quiet beauty. Bassist Fred Marshall contributes a thoughtful solo chorus that maintains the piece's contemplative mood. The composition's bittersweet harmonic language, with its minor-key colorings and unresolved tensions, gives it an emotional complexity that transcends the holiday genre, suggesting the melancholy undercurrents that made the Peanuts special so affecting. The waltz feel adds an elegance that distinguishes it from the more rhythmically driving tracks on the album. Christmas Time Is Here has become a jazz standard in its own right, widely covered by artists across genres, and its appearance in the television special remains one of the most memorable moments in animation history.
