For the Love of Snoopy! Who’s the Most Popular Valentine’s Day Card Character?
Peanuts aren’t just for the Great Pumpkin and Christmas pageants. Turns out, Charlie Brown’s also stolen the heart of the most romantic day of the year. Kind of ironic, since the kid never gets any Valentines, himself. And this is a romance that has been going on for decades!
Back in 196o, 10 years after Charles Schulz’s comic-strip debuted, Hallmark unveiled the first-ever Peanuts greeting card. Three years after that came the inaugural Peanuts Valentine’s Day card (below) and it’s been Snoopy kisses, foiled attempts at archery and odes to the little red-haired girl ever since.
In fact, Hallmark’s partnership with Peanuts is their longest continual licensing agreement and just last year, 1.3 million Peanuts Valentine’s Day cards (including e-cards) were sold.
It helps that the company’s approach to creating these beloved missives involves a dedicated staff that has access to all of the original comic strips, as well as Hallmark’s entire vault of past Peanuts cards. The collaboration between their designers and the Schulz family has been so successful and faithful to the Peanuts brand that Hallmark is one of the rare companies with permission to redraw Peanuts artwork.
And it’s not just about cards, either. Over the years, Hallmark has produced more than 150 billion individual Peanuts products, including plush, stationery, home decor, keepsakes and ornaments.
And if you don’t have a Valentine this year, fear not: Chuck, his beagle and the whole gang are around to hang, thanks to ABC’s airings of Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Valentine this Friday starting at 8/7c. It may not be dinner and dancing, but it’s still a date we can’t help but love.
