Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - A Christmas Music Countdown

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” wasn’t originally a very merry little song. Introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 musical Meet Me in St. Louis. The song was credited to Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, Frank Sinatra later recorded a version with modified lyrics, which has become more common than the original. In 2007, ASCAP ranked "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" the third most performed Christmas song written by ASCAP members of the past five years.

According to Wikipedia, the song was written while Martin was vacationing in a house in Birmingham, Ala., that his father Hugh Martin designed for his mother as a honeymoon cottage. The house was located in the Southside section of the city, across the street from Hugh's mother and right beside her aunt. The song first appeared in a scene in “Meet Me in St. Louis,” in which a St. Louise family is distraught by the father's plans to move to New York City for a job promotion, leaving behind their beloved just before the long-anticipated Louisiana Purchase Exposition begins. In a scene set on Christmas Eve, Judy Garland's character, Esther, sings the song to cheer up her despondent five-year-old sister, Tootie, played by Margaret O'Brien.

When presented with the original draft, Garland, her co-star Tom Drake and director Vincente Minnelli criticized the song as depressing. Garland complained that if she sang this song to her little co-star, audiences would think she was a monster:

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, pop that champagne cork,
Next year we will all be living in New York.
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.

Just try having a merry Christmas after singing lyrics like that. ‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas – it may be your last’?

Though he initially resisted, songwriter Hugh Martin made several changes to make the song more upbeat. For example, the lines “It may be your last / Next year we may all be living in the past” became “Let your heart be light / Next year all our troubles will be out of sight.” Garland's version of the song, which was also released as a single by Decca Records, became popular among United States troops serving in World War II; her performance at the Hollywood Canteen brought many soldiers to tears.

In 1957, Frank Sinatra asked Martin to revise the line “Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow.” He told Martin, “The name of my album is A Jolly Christmas. Do you think you could jolly up that line for me?” Martin's new line, “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough,” has since become more widely recognized and sung than the original phrase. Martin made several other alterations, changing the song's focus to a celebration of present happiness, rather than anticipation of a better future.

Although the 1957 rewrite is the most familiar to listeners today, the Judy Garland lyrics have been recorded by a number of artists. The funniest and most endearing is on John Denver’s album, “A Christmas Together” where he sings a duet with Muppet character Rowlf the Dog.

For people out there who are unemployed and despondent, and for those worried they may be next, the (revised) song is a good reminder of what’s really important – home, friends, family. Even in the worst of times, if we can just have the spirit and the faith to “mudde through” those bad times, better days will come, even if it doesn’t seem like it at the moment. If we don’t lose hope, we won’t lose our way.

I was in the middle of decorating my Christmas tree, happy, singing along with the Christmas music, when I got the news, via e-mail, that two people I knew had died. But then I looked at a Christmas card someone had sent me of the nativity. Just Mary, Joseph and the star shining over the Baby Jesus. That card has greeted me every evening when I come home, after a very bad week at work, feeling helpless against co-workers’ machinations and hopeless that I’ll make it through another year, much less to retirement, which is still a daunting 15 years off.

Listening to Christmas music didn’t help. I couldn’t bring myself to turn on the tree. But as I was getting ready for bed, I passed the card again. There was a solace in its serenity, not cheerful, but at least consoling. He is above all these things of the earth, the futile wrestling for power, the intimidation, the anger, the shouting, the lying, the boasting, the back-biting, the calculating, the undermining, the scorn, the fear, the anxiety. We are like animals, grappling with one another in the dust of mortality. No wonder there’s no peace in the world.

Others can cast clouds over our Christmas cheer, so that we find no joy in a Christmas carol or brightly lit tree. But they can’t cast a cloud over The Nativity.