Everyone has a must-see Christmas film (or several) that they watch every year as tradition. One of mine is The Family Stone (2005), a festive comedy with a wistful turn about a liberal New England family whose adult children gather at home with their parents for the holidays, significant others in tow. As the eldest son Everett (Dermot Mulroney) introduces his uptight city girlfriend Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) to the clan, a clash of personalities ensues as she fails to bond with the family. Cue a cringeworthy meal, opposites attracting, and one brother chasing the other around the house on Christmas morning to the soundtrack of The Nutcracker’s Russian Dance. It’s fine holiday fun, every year.

At the heart of the film is an unfolding truth that centres around the Stone family matriarch, played to perfection by Diane Keaton. In a poignant moment, the eldest daughter Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser) is watching her own must-see Christmas film, Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), at the point where Judy Garland sings the soothing ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ to a tearful Margaret O’Brien. In the film within the film, the Smith family are set to leave their beloved St. Louis, and Tootie (O’Brien) is distraught, so her big sister Esther (Garland) comforts her with the now-classic song.

Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). — Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien in *Meet Me in St. Louis* (1944).

The tunes and lyrics of iconic Christmas songs are so repeated in culture that we sing along with them automatically, rarely stopping to really listen to them and consider their meanings. In fact, ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ has melancholic and uplifting versions, both of which are played popularly, but the latter of which was requested by Frank Sinatra for his 1957 album A Jolly Christmas. The original lyrics were written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane in 1943 for the upcoming MGM film Meet Me in St. Louis, while the world was in the midst of WW2. As the story goes, the original lyrics were rather depressing: ‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas / It may be your last / Next year we may all be living in the past.’ Garland objected and requested revisions, not wanting to seem like ‘a monster’. Upon its release, Garland’s version of the song became popular among US troops serving abroad. In its film incarnation, it’s a Christmas song for people far apart, living through challenging times:

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 are dear to us
Will be near to us once more

Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then we'll have muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

As Martin made alterations to ‘jolly up’ the song for Sinatra, ‘muddle through somehow’ was replaced with ‘Hang a shining star upon the highest bough’, and the entire song was shifted from the future to the present tense, with ‘Next year’ becoming by ‘From now on’, so the song would become a celebration of the present rather than a hope for a brighter future, rather altering its original message and character in the process.

For my part, I prefer the Garland version of the song, which - as I see it - was always a celebration of the present. My own meta-experience of the song this year is like a set of Russian nesting dolls: the Smith family Christmas, embedded in the Stone family Christmas, embedded in mine - with all of those Christmases in a ‘muddle’. As the song imparts, the ‘muddle’ doesn’t preclude the ‘merry’; it necessitates it. However ‘little’ this Christmas is - with loved ones near or far - the ‘heart’ can still ‘be light’. The hope is ‘next year’ will be better, ‘if the fates allow’; in the meantime, we can still celebrate this Christmas ‘now’.

From my muddle to yours, Merry Little Christmas🎄