From the pumpkin patch to the Christmas tree lot, the Peanuts gang is a cozy-season staple. For this study, we analyzed Google Trends data from September 2024 to September 2025 to identify the most searched Charlie Brown holiday movie and the most popular Peanuts character in every state.
But Peanuts isn’t just about holiday traditions — it’s also full of scrappy, small-business moments. Lucy’s five-cent psychiatry booth, Charlie Brown’s lemonade stand, and even those community plays that pull the whole neighborhood together all highlight the entrepreneurial streak running through the gang. If any of them had tried to take their ventures online, they might just have been flagged as “high risk” — and that’s where we would come in.
Ready to see how your state stacks up? Let’s dive into the results.
The Most Popular Charlie Brown Movies in the U.S.
Here are the top-searched Charlie Brown holiday specials overall (by number of states won):
- A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving — 17 states
- A Charlie Brown Christmas — 14 states
- It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown — 13 states
- Happy New Year, Charlie Brown — 4 states
- It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown — 2 states
- Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown — 1 state
From a national view, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving comes out on top, edging the other classics with broad wins across the Midwest, Northeast, and South. A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown are essentially co-runners-up, reflecting strong seasonal pull in both late fall and December.
Regional patterns pop up on the map. The West Coast leans festive with A Charlie Brown Christmas in California, Oregon, and Washington. The Midwest and Great Plains favor Great Pumpkin, especially in Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, with support stretching into Arizona, Colorado, Montana, and Utah. In the Northeast, Thanksgiving dominates in Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. And it tracks that New England would cozy up to the Thanksgiving special. After all, the very first Thanksgiving was theirs.
A few states zig where others zag. Happy New Year, Charlie Brown tops searches in Alabama, Florida, Indiana, and Nevada, hinting at a preference for post-holiday optimism. It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, lands in Iowa and Mississippi, while Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, makes a lone stand in Idaho. Big-population anchors also follow distinct traditions: Texas and New York choose Thanksgiving, while California goes with Christmas.
The Most Popular Charlie Brown Characters in the U.S.
Here are the top-searched Peanuts characters overall (by number of states won):
- Charlie Brown — 17 states
- Woodstock — 9 states
- Linus van Pelt — 8 states
- Lucy van Pelt — 4 states
- Snoopy — 4 states
- Peppermint Patty — 3 states
- Schroeder — 2 states
- Marcie — 1 state
- Pig Pen — 1 state
- Sally Brown — 1 state
- Violet — 1 state
Across the map, Charlie Brown himself leads in 17 states, with a strong presence across the South and interior: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, plus heartland states like Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Oklahoma, Utah, and a big-population standout, New York. The pattern suggests broad-name familiarity and evergreen appeal tied to multiple holiday specials.
Two supporting players split the next tier. Woodstock tops nine states — clustered in the Pacific Northwest and Upper Midwest — including Alaska, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, and (while not technically a state) Washington, D.C.. Linus van Pelt leads in eight states, with a corridor through the Midwest into the Plains and Northeast: Alabama, Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, and South Dakota.
Distinct regional flavors appear for other favorites. Snoopy shines in the West — Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada — while Lucy van Pelt finds pockets of support in Delaware, Kentucky, Nebraska, and Rhode Island. Rarer picks create fun outliers: Peppermint Patty is the fan-favorite in Maryland, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania; Schroeder in Colorado and Indiana; and single-state winners like Violet in Louisiana, Pig Pen in Vermont, Marcie in West Virginia, and Sally Brown in New Mexico.
Closing Thoughts
From pumpkins to pageants, the Peanuts universe is full of side hustles. While playful, these scenes echo the very real world of startups and unconventional ventures that High Risk Pay supports every day. For merchants, those surges in attention translate into peak moments at checkout — whether you’re selling seasonal bundles, limited-run merch, or event access.
If your business looks a little like Lucy’s booth (high potential, higher risk), we’re here for it. Launch confidently with a startup merchant account built for emerging, nontraditional models.
Methodology
To find each state’s favorite Charlie Brown holiday special, we pulled the 10 top-rated specials from IMDb and used those exact titles as Google Trends queries. For characters, we built a list from the Peanuts Wiki (Fandom) and queried each canonical name. The analysis covers search volume from September 2024 to September 2025. The top term by relative search interest in each geography was designated that location’s favorite.
