, is practicing figure skating with her coach Snoopy for an upcoming competition, but the many days of getting up to practice at 4:30 A.M. are starting to take their toll, and she falls asleep constantly in class. One of her practices is halted briefly when a group of ten hockey players threatens her if she does not leave the ice so they can play. Patty and Snoopy take care of the situation by shoving the lead hockey players on each squad, causing both teams of hockey players to fall on top of each other like dominoes and be swept off the ice by Snoopy. Later that day after an afternoon practice, Marcie, who is observing, invites Patty over to her house for hot cocoa and cookies. Once there, Patty notices that Marcie has a sewing machine. Despite Marcie explaining that it is her mother's machine, and that she does not know how to sew, Patty commissions her to make a dress for the competition. With that settled, they head to a fabric store and buy the supplies. As expected, the dress does not come out good on Marcie's part, looking more like a sleeveless poncho, to which Marcie defends her mistake by reminding her that she told her she did not know how to sew and the homespun outfit was Patty's idea, not hers. Patty heads back outside and almost tearfully shows Snoopy the mangled dress. He leads her back to Marcie's and, taking the dress from Patty, returns to the sewing machine and almost instantly sews the dress into a top-notch skating outfit. However, Snoopy is less helpful, when Patty complains that her hair is a "mousey blah" style. Snoopy brings in a large red gift box, and inside is a large red curly-haired wig that makes Patty look like Little Orphan Annie. After trying it on, Patty rolls her eyes and dumps the wig on Snoopy's head. The day of the competition has arrived. All the contestants are first practicing altogether, then they clear while Snoopy clears the ice. The first two contestants end up falling and get rather low scores. The third contestant does not fall, and gets such a good score that the pressure is on for Patty. Unfortunately, disaster seems to strike as her music tape goes haywire in the cassette deck. While Snoopy frantically tries to fix it and ends up in a fight with the machine on the ice, Patty is starting to sweat as she holds her opening pose longer than she expected, and all the rest of the Peanuts characters in the audience worry that she will be disqualified. However, disaster is averted when Woodstock steps up to the microphone and whistles the music O mio babbino caro. Peppermint Patty receives the highest score, and has won the competition. She is shown on the stand with her trophy, while the runners-up stand below her with silver and bronze medals. On the way out, she is talking with Snoopy about her performance, and Snoopy is back as his grumbling, coaching self. She finally asks if he has anything nice to say, and she gets kissed on the cheek by him. Woodstock is shown bringing up the rear whistling the music again.
Figure skating animation
Although the plot line is implausible, the actual skating portrayed in the film is quite accurate for the time. Peppermint Patty is seen practicing compulsory figures and her free skating routine uses realistic figure skating jumps, spins, and choreography. The skating scenes were animated using the rotoscoping technique, using Schulz's own daughter as one of the models. Some of the skating footage appears in the concluding animation associated with the credits.
Original strips
This program was written from a relatively long series of Peanuts comic strips originally published in 1974. The strip had other subplots that were left out of the special, and changes were made to the storyline by the time it went to the small screen. For instance:
In the strip, after the disaster with Patty's skating dress, Marcie's mother stepped in to make the alterations. It was Snoopy who altered the dress in the TV special.
After Patty gets her dress she wants to do something with her self-described "mousy-blah" hair, so she ultimately decides to go to Charlie Brown's dad's barber shop, but Charlie Brown forgot to tell his dad she was a girl, so he gives her a boy's haircut, much to her despair. To cover up the mistake, Patty wears an afro wig several sizes too big. This scene is altered in the special, with the wig a gift from Snoopy and promptly refused.
Patty arrives at the competition and only at that point finds out that it is for roller skating, not ice skating, but not before she gets into trouble inadvertently damaging the rink floor with her skate blades. Patty returns from the competition realizing she still owes Snoopy for her lessons. Having no money, she gives him her wig as payment.
Schroeder, Linus van Pelt, and Lucy van Pelt appear, but they are silent. However, Linus and Lucy both only have one line in this animated television special.
