Of the many Christmas classics, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” remains a perennial favorite. Beloved Charlie Brown, in his inimitable bumbling fashion, helps recover the true meaning of Christmas buried beneath the commercial focus around him.

Director Marita Ericksen’s special adaptation of the musical “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown” will be put on by a cast of 18 island youth for the fifth year running.

High school interns Lilly Robinthal and Isabelle Porter, Eriksen’s “right and left hands,” she said, help backstage to organize the cast.

“I have learned so much about community working with the students” Ericksen said. “They really embody the spirit of the play.”

The show will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday at the Blue Heron. Tickets, $6 youth, $10 VAA members and seniors and $14 general, are available at www.vashon

alliedarts.org, the Heron’s Nest and at the door.