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I observed that when a kite becomes caught in a tall tree, it is irretrievable and gradually disappears over a period of several weeks. Now obviously the kite had to go someplace, so it seemed to me that the tree must be eating it.
~ Charles M. Schulz[1]

Kite-Eating Tree-1

The Kite-Eating Tree.

The Kite-Eating Tree is a non-human character in the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz. As the name suggests, it is a large tree that eats kites. Charlie Brown began getting his kite caught in trees in the strip from April 12, 1956 but the Kite-Eating Tree was not named until March 14, 1965. It is often depicted with large teeth and grins when Charlie Brown approaches with a kite.

History[]

Schulz flipbook 20-1-

Charlie Brown gives in to the Kite-Eating Tree in the strip from February 19, 1967.

Charlie Brown constantly loses kites to the tree. He appears to be the only child who flies kites anywhere near it, therefore, as Charlie Brown notes in the Sunday strip from March 3, 1968, without him the tree would "starve to death." In a story-line from February to March of 1977, to take revenge on the tree, Charlie Brown takes a bite out of it. The tree later blows down in a storm. However, even after the tree blows down, it has made many more appearances, so there is most likely more than one Kite-Eating Tree.

In the strip from January 23, 1969, Lucy van Pelt throws Schroeder's piano into the tree, which proceeds to eat it. Therefore, the two things that the tree is known to eat are kites and pianos.
Piano eating tree

Kite-Eating Tree enjoys Schroeder's piano in the strip from January 24, 1969.


The Kite-Eating tree is seen in the early parts of the movie A Boy Named Charlie Brown (where it is implied that the tree's teeth and grin are only a figment of Charlie Brown's imagination), and is briefly seen in the game, It's the Big Game, Charlie Brown. It was featured as a ride at the former Camp Snoopy theme park in Bloomington, Minnesota. It also has a few appearances in The Peanuts Movie. Here, the tree catches one of Charlie Brown's kites in an early portion of the film. However, it actually assists his common target at the end of the film, where it helps Charlie Brown get past the large group of kids to talk to the Little Red-Haired Girl by giving him a kite to fly over them. In the Mars or Bust, Charlie Brown creates a model rocket and it gets eaten by the tree.

The final appearance of the Kite-Eating Tree in the Peanuts comic strip is in the strip from February 26, 1995. Charlie Brown would, however, continue to get his kites caught in other trees until March 6, 1999.

References in other media[]

  • The Kevin & Kell webcomic for October 17, 2021 featured a "tree-eating kite" where a rabbit sprayed a kite with glue to gather leaves from a tree for a snack.
  1. Schulz, C. M. (2010). My Life with Charlie Brown. p154. University Press of Mississippi.
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