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Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

I've been enjoying listening to Christmas music this week, and I've heard several renditions of the song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". It's one of my favorites.  But I bet you didn't know that the original song has different words than are typically sung today.

The song made it's debut in the 1944 movie "Meet Me in St. Louis", with Judy Garland. In the movie, the father of the family has made the decision to move them all from St. Louis to New York, and he intends they should leave right after Christmas.  Of course, St. Louis is the only home they've ever known, and they all think their world is coming to an end.  Judy sings the song to little sister Margaret O'Brien to help cheer her up, but it's obvious that Judy is not feeling very cheery herself.

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 near to us
Will be dear to us once more

Someday 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

I for one prefer this version, although you rarely hear it sung with these words.  Today's words seem to indicate that everything is always golden, whereas I think this version kind of touches on the hope that Christmas brings after struggling through difficult times. If you think about it, the movie was released during World War II, and it was likely a message that was needed during a dark time. Frankly, it's a message that I think is needed more so now.

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