How to watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown for free

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Peanuts holidays specials are already starting to debut on Apple TV+.
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is already streaming on Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple

Families with a tradition of watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown can enjoy the classic Peanuts special on Apple TV+ for free this weekend. And it’s available to subscribers of Apple’s streaming service at any time. 

It can be viewed on a very wide variety of streaming boxes, like Roku and Amazon Fire, not just Mac or iPhone.

A streaming exclusive… but free to watch

Apple owns the rights to all Peanuts holiday specials. That means the way to once again see Charlie Brown get a bag of rocks, Snoopy take on the Red Baron, and Linus try to present the most sincere pumpkin patch in the world is on Apple TV+.

But the classic is not locked behind a paywall. Apple has made the Halloween special free to non-subscribers to enjoy on October 21 through October 22.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown has been available to paying subscribers of Apple’s streaming service all this month.

How to watch the Peanuts Halloween special on a range of devices

Apple users play the holiday classic through the Apple TV application, which is available in the App Store for iPhone and iPad. There’s also a Mac version in that app store. Install any or all of these as you would any software.

Once you have the application installed and running, look around for It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (direct link).

Watch on Apple TV

But enjoying the classic holiday special doesn’t require an Apple TV, Mac or other Apple device. The service is watchable on a wide variety of devices, including Windows, Roku and Amazon Fire.

For anyone with a computer running Windows or Chrome OS, watching Apple’s video content is as easy as visiting its website. The same goes for Android phones and tablets. You’ll access the Peanuts special in a browser. You can jump straight to the It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown page.

But Apple made sure there’s a version of the Apple TV application for a wide range of streaming devices. That includes smart TVs too.

On a Roku, go to the Channel Store and download the Apple software. On an Amazon Fire TV, installation can start with saying, “Alexa, find the Apple TV app.” You might need to create a free account, also called an Apple ID, if you don’t have one already.

3 months of free Peanuts specials on Apple TV+

The Peanuts Halloween special isn’t the only one that Apple will make available for anyone to watch for free.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is also an Apple TV+ exclusive, but it’ll be open to all from November 18 through November 19. And A Charlie Brown Christmas will be available free from December 16 through December 17.

While the three classics will be free, Peanuts fans might want a subscription to Apple TV+. The service offers Snoopy Presents: For Auld Lang Syne, a fresh New Year’s eve special created by Apple. And there’s also The Snoopy Show starring the irrepressible beagle — a series that has a 100% critics approval score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Apple TV+ is $6.99 a month, and includes a wide variety of other children’s’ programs, too.

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