Today’s seasonal piece was written for the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis. The movie takes the Smith family through various holidays from summer through year’s end in the eponymous city, just before the 1904 World’s Fair. The family is brought to a crisis at Christmas when the father announces they’re all going to have to move to New York City because he’s got a big promotion.
No one wants to go, not even
him (really), but the one who seems most traumatized by the prospect is Tootie
(Margaret O’Brien), the youngest daughter. Her older sister Esther (Judy
Garland) sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” to try to console
Tootie, but it’s so sad that the kid rushes out and beats her snowman family in
the yard to death. That jolts dad into declaring there will be no move, and the
next scene is everyone next Spring at the fair.
Well, the song does express
emotions that would have been common throughout the world in 1944—tens of
millions of families split up, with a good proportion of them actively fighting
or closely affected by World War II. There would have been a lot of wistfulness
and maybe put-on-a-good-face hope as they prayed for an end to the conflict
that was in its sixth winter, just in Western Europe. Therefore, it seems to me
an appropriate piece for us this year.
There are a lot of really
sappy covers of this, but I’m giving you James Taylor.
May all those who are separated
from loved ones—whether by war or other conditions—be reunited soon. And may their hearts be truly light.
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