Hobbes | RobertLovesPi.net

The cartoonists Charles Schultz knew, and Bill Watterson knows, an immense amount about the uniquely American way to celebrate Christmas.

Their work speaks for itself.

I hope you enjoy these cartoons, and have both a Happy Christmas and Merry New Year.

Please buy the books with these comic strips. They’re easy to find on Amazon, and many other places.

Books make excellent gifts, not just for holidays, but at any time. Christmas is also a time associated with eating good food, too, of course. Calvin’s table manners are atrocious, of course, but his parents do try.

Christmas Break, Winter vacation, or whatever you choose to call it gives us all time to be with our families and friends.

Santa Claus is also a big part of Christmas in America. Whether we like it or not, the same is true of capitalism.

Reality often clashes with our ideals. That’s part of being human, in any season.

An emotionally-charged phrase, “true meaning of Christmas,” is repeatedly explained, forgotten, rediscovered, celebrated, etc. — and, of course, we argue about it. We’re Americans, after all.

Sometimes, we also listen to each other. Other times, we don’t, even when we need to, and the opportunity presents itself.

The holiday season is often rough on those of us who struggle with depression. These cartoonists tackled such issues head-on. However, they never claimed to have all the answers.

Happy Christmas, and Merry New Year, to you and yours.

Peace be with you.

One thing both comic strips have in common is a focus on children and childhood. Reading them can help one keep from losing the essence of youth, no matter what age one reaches.

Bill Watterson, Charles Schultz: thank you for sharing your ideas about Christmas, and life itself, with us, over the decades. I’ll let Schultz have the last word.

The current American election cycle was predicted, with amazing accuracy, in the late 20th Century, by Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes. Evidence will follow. We’ll start with ignorance and apathy, both of which are certainly involved in American elections.

Not wanting to vote and not being allowed to vote are, of course, two different things to Calvin.

While he’s being ignorant and apathetic, Calvin is, at least, honest. Honesty is something which we definitely need, and currently do not have, in American politics, from the left or the right.

If only this fictional duo qualified under the Constitution, we’d be facing this choice, which certainly seems better than the choice we actually have:

Watterson understood, well, the corrupting role of money in politics.

The big issue politicians do not talk about enough is the environment. Why do they not devote more energy to that? Money, of course. The love of money drives people to do harmful and irrational things, and this includes things with obviously-negative environmental impact.

He also created numerous cartoons about pollsters and lobbyists, taking them every bit as seriously as these people deserve to be taken.

America has a lot of single-issue voters. They are not safe from Watterson’s satire. This cartoon is as on-target today as it was when it first appeared.

For what purposes was Calvin willing to do research? Could his spray-painting ambitions include negative campaign ads?

I certainly think so.

The next cartoon applies equally well, in my opinion, to the words and actions of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

If the next cartoon doesn’t remind you of the Trump-or-Clinton choice we face, and what an amazing waste of time and energy it is to have to make such an absurd “choice,” please read it again.

Finally, here’s Calvin’s invention of the perfect bipartisan slogan for this campaign season, and its nausea-inducing choice between bad (Clinton) and worse (Trump).