Schroeder Beethoven's Birthday

Bright orange button with black text on a sign that the illustration of Schroeder, a Peanuts character, is holding. 

Schroeder is one of the beloved characters in the Peanuts comic strip created by Charles Schultz who is an avid lover of Beethoven and was often found in each panel playing his piano or listening to various compositions by Beethoven. He is the only one of the Peanuts clan that celebrates Beethoven’s birthday, which is on December 16th.

Schroeder is noted as first celebrating Beethoven’s birthday in a 1953 panel and almost every year in December following that first strip. After that first celebration, a running gag has Schroeder holding up signs to remind everyone that Beethoven’s birthday is coming up. This love of Beethoven and reference to musical themes throughout the comic’s history is reported as mimicking Schulz’s own love of the composer, with Schroeder as his alter ego.