It was only Palace's second league defeat in 18 matches but they could have no complaints about the result as the home side played in top gear to thoroughly deserve the three points.
The home side's hero was summer signing Luke Varney who hit his sixth and seventh goals of the season, both in the second half. The second was a brilliant individual effort that gave the visitors no chance of getting back into the match.
Charlton gave a debut to on-loan signing Greg Halford from Sunderland and he could have been an early hero when he missed a glorious chance to put the home side in front, screwing his 17th minute shot across the face of goal.
And Palace had two further escapes when Zhi Zheng, who had travelled halfway around the world this week to play for China, saw his close-range effort saved by Julian Speroni in the Palace goal.
When Varney hit the post for Charlton, it looked as though it could be one of those nights when their efforts would fail to be rewarded. Palace's only first-half effort on target was a Ben Watson shot that was deflected for a corner.
Charlton finally got the breakthrough on the hour when a long free-kick from the halfway line was headed on by Andy Gray for Varney to volley home from close range.
Palace manager Neil Warnock threw on Shefki Kuqi to give him three strikers on the field, but Varney made the game safe with a brilliant second goal.
He cut in from the left wing before firing an unstoppable right-foot shot past Speroni to send most of the biggest Valley crowd of the season home happy.