VALDOSTA — Children and former children have annually watched “A Charlie Brown Christmas” on television for a half century.

The animated holiday special tells a story of Christmas’ meaning of spirit and caring over the crass commercialism that had already seeped into the seasonal culture decades ago.

Seeing the TV cartoon is a tradition for many families.

Seeing it presented by actual children in a stage setting can be a powerful and moving event and Little Actors Theatre Director Diane Tovar has made seeing a live production of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” an event for the past several years.

The show returns Saturday and Sunday.

The Valdosta-based children’s theatre troupe presents a show that is faithful to the TV special written by “Peanuts” cartoonist Charles M. Schulz with Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson, Tovar said.

Arguably, the live version is more faithful to the spirit of the Charlie Brown story. There are no commercial breaks in the Little Actors show.

But each performance will still last about 30 minutes as Tovar and Little Actors have added a couple of songs to the show.

Audiences can expect the well-known story of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus’ retelling of the birth of Jesus and the little Christmas tree that could.

THE CAST: Isaac Cascio, Zane’ Thomas, Jace Kerzic, Zaynah Fair, Avarie Kerzic, Michael Barrentine, Chloe Barrentine, Isabella Monita, David Thomas, Sally Kirkland, Rebekah McGee.

SHOWTIME

Little Actors Theatre presents “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

When: 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1; and 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2.

Where: Little Actors Theatre’s headquarters, 1108 S. Patterson St.

Ticket: $5.

Hot chocolate and cookies after each show.

More information: Visit littleactorstheatre.com.