December 2020.

In 1943, Hugh Martin, a composer and lyricist for musical theater, wrote a Christmas song reflecting on the sadness and disappointments of the past year. The tone of the work stood in sharp contrast to the normal, joyful tenor of Christmas songs. Written for “Meet Me in St. Louis,” starring Judy Garland, the Christmas song expressed the sentiments of the young women in a family that was leaving behind an idyllic life in St. Louis and relocating to an uncertain future in New York. The palpable sense of loss and trepidation about the future expressed in the song was so strong that the 21-year-old Judy Garland and the director of the movie, her future husband Vincent Minnelli, asked Martin to change his lyrics to make the song less depressing. Martin made several changes, including changing

“…it may be your last

Next year we may all be living in the past.”

to the less ominous

“Let your hearts be light

Next year all our troubles will be out of sight.”

In 1957, to further expunge the downbeat sentiments of the original song, on the request of Frank Sinatra, Hugh Martin changed the line “Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow” to “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough. “

And so with additional changes over the years, we have the present version:

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

Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more

Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now

Even with those changes, the poignancy of the song, with its emphasis on a diminished holiday in an uncertain and perilous world, remains. Those sentiments perfectly captured Christmas in the middle of World War II, with the whole country on a war footing and several million men serving abroad; the song became an instant hit and has been a standard ever since. When Judy Garland performed the song in 1944 before an audience of service men returning from combat or about to be deployed, soldiers wept.

And so this song seems also to capture the moment for us in 2020, as we approach Christmas during a worldwide pandemic, beset by profound political divisions and economic turmoil. As we muse about 2021, we can only hope and pray that we all will be together and that our troubles will indeed be far away. We may also reflect on the year receding and lament the faithful friends who will gather near to us no more. Until those troubles are far away, we will try to make our little Christmas as merry as we can. We hope that you are able to do the same.