What’s Great about the Great Pumpkin

Nothing is impossible in creative writing.  It can include facts that are colored, shaped, textured, and positioned differently to present a unique message. Words convey emotion through imagination and invention. 

Charles M. Schulz, inventor of the Peanuts comic strip, created a unique message in the “Great Pumpkin” character in 1959.  He meant it to be a sincere alternative to Santa Claus, inspired by the idea of a child getting his holidays mixed up and expecting presents on Halloween. 

My dad, although a lawyer, must have been a fan of Peanuts and a closet creative writer. He saw The Great Pumpkin as a symbol of faith and hope. In the comic strip, every Halloween, Linus* (Charlie Brown’s intelligent, security-blanket-carrying best friend) waits for the The Great Pumpkin for his gifts. But it does not appear. And so he waits again the next year, and the next, and the next. He never gives up, even if he is mocked. 

If that isn’t faith and hope, what is? 

It’s 2026, but I look back on many years ago when my dad gave son #1, JC, the Great Pumpkin book. He wrote: 

Deeply touched, I wrote about it in my “Gifts of Grace” (Book 2), published by OMF Literature in 2002. So why am I writing about it again 24 years later?  

My sister Aie’s library in the province was ravaged by a flood. But she had salvaged a few books, one of which is this:  

She gave it to JC as Christmas gift, stirring in me what I had written in Gifts of Grace. The old Great Pumpkin book (top two photos)—now with decayed pages and deckled edges—is one of JC's treasures.  

JC has long been grown up, dad has long been gone (soon I will be, too), that's why we now know too well what he meant by the Great Pumpkin. Many readers have interpreted it in different ways, but my dad’s definition remains in me: 

Amidst life’s lows, from then till now, sit sincerely in a pumpkin patch, wait, keep the faith, and escape the pit.  

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 

ooo

*Linus acts as the philosopher, theologian, and "house intellectual" of the group. He is known for his wisdom, deep thoughts, and for often quoting the Gospels. He is the only character who believes in the "Great Pumpkin," whom he expects to rise from a "sincere" pumpkin patch every Halloween.