Since 1966, each fall, families have been cozying up on the couch to watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, the classic animated television special with a heartwarming story of hope for a spooky season miracle. So it’s only fitting that Santa Rosa’s Schulz Museum, dedicated to Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz, would get a great pumpkin of its own.
On the museum’s upcoming free admission day on Sunday, Oct. 27, visitors can check out the museum’s new, massive 2,301-pound pumpkin, on display in its courtyard, before heading in to see the exhibition Peanuts Evolution: The 1960s, which features several original Great Pumpkin comic strips. (The real-life pumpkin outside recently placed second at the National Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Wheatland, California.)
On Sunday, the Great Pumpkin television special will also screen every half hour in the museum’s theater. Peanuts fans looking to watch it at home can stream it on Apple TV+.
The Schulz Museum has several other exhibitions on view, including Here Come the Beagle Scouts and Bravo, Snoopy! Peanuts and Pawpet Theater, about the Peanuts crew’s outdoor and artistic adventures. On Oct. 28, Halloween programming continues with stories, crafts, trick-or-treating and activities for kids ages 1–5 and their caregivers.