Have yourself a Christmas song

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and first brought to us by Judy Garland in Vincente Minnelli’s Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). Yet we have mostly forgotten that the song was hastily re-written after Garland declared the original lyrics (seen here) too grim:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last.

Next year we may all be living in the past.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, make the Yuletide gay,

Next year we may all be many miles away.

No good times like the olden days, happy golden days of yore.

Faithful friends who were dear to us will be near to us no more.

But at least we all will be together if the fates allow.

From now on, we'll have to muddle through somehow.

So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

Surely those were lines that many living through 1944 would have grasped only too well, but they did not meet the aims of an MGM musical: to brighten the lives and hopes of the film-going audience - thereby fulfilling the promise of ‘good box office’ along the way. Here then, are the lyrics to the song after the re-write and as we remember them:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light.

Next year all our troubles will be out of sight.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, make the Yuletide gay.

Next year all our troubles will be miles away.

Once again, as in olden days, happy golden days of yore,

Faithful friends who were dear to us will be near to us once more.

Some day soon we all will be together if the fates allow.

Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.

So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

As is immediately apparent, the tinge of sadness attending the song could not be completely erased because this was a film tinged with sadness, the story of a family facing an unwanted move away from home, away from, effectively, a highly idealized picture of small-town life. From the moment Alonzo Smith announces his promotion and the move to New York City, the story is imbued with a sense of loss, fear of impending change, grief, anger, and regret. All of these fuel a familial resistance to the patriarch’s authority that is mostly subtle or hidden (from Alonzo) but at key moments, verges on outright rebellion. Indeed, the Christmas song serves as a prelude to the film’s most intense expression of rage and despair - Tootie’s destruction of the snow people. And Judy Garland infuses every note with the emotions that have kept the story teetering on the edge of chaos throughout:

Martin Scorsese has described Meet Me in St. Louis as “a milestone” because unlike most musicals from the preceding era, it did not have a Broadway setting and the characters were not singers and dancers, but ordinary people who could sing and dance “if they felt like it.”

Minnelli’s landmark film was “a memory album set in the Midwest of the turn of the century. The tunes were designed to further the plot and reveal the characters. They express the ebb and flow of personal emotions… Sweetness and innocence will prevail but with the explosion of a child’s pain and rage, unexpected shadows were suddenly cast on this nostalgic period piece.” (Martin Scorsese, A Personal Journey Through American Movies, British Film Institute, 1995)¹

In truth and despite the ‘happy ending’, the shadow never lifts from this film. For all its feel-good songs and moments - and these are potent and wonderful - we may also forever read this film ‘against the grain.’ It speaks to our grownup longings for childhood, family, and a sense of home. However golden or not-golden our childhood memories, we are invited into a story in which growing up necessarily brings loss.

In the end, I find there is not much difference between the two sets of lyrics and their effects. Or I might say they speak together. When I watch the film, I remember both, feel both, and rejoice in the beauty of both. This remains a song for our personal and private losses, not without comfort or hope for a brighter future, but not denying grief or hard changes either.

Beyond our personal stories, the song first spoke to a generation at world war, but it has returned of late to the times we share now. In 2020 during the pandemic, it found a newly fearful culture. And to this year, 2024, it is difficult to look forward to Christmas while knowing that thousands of children have died in a war that has been prolonged cruelly and will not deliver lasting peace. Our leaders continue to enable this war, even as desperate calls for a ceasefire are heard all around.

To my readers, all good wishes for the holidays. I hope the old song speaks to you in whatever way you wish. It might acknowledge some loss or sadness you carry, but bring back warm memories too. Finally, it might spark - for all of us - our very old (though so often dashed) human hope that the world “muddles through somehow” and so by next year, its troubles will have eased.

It’s a good hope. See you in 2025. xx

1. For Scorsese’s marvellous discussion of American cinema, see A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies : Martin Scorsese : Internet Archive (his discussion of the Musical - the genre and its history - begins at 56 minutes in Part One.)

For a fascinating and detailed account of the making of the film, see Gerald Kaufman, Meet Me in St. Louis, BFI Film Classics, London: 1994.