Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

When Christmas is spent away from home, it is often music that bridges the gap between loved ones. During WWII, former child star Judy Garland would perform for troops on the front line and realized that her song “Somewhere over the Rainbow” had a deeper meaning that to the lonely soldiers meant home.

So when she was filming Meet Me in St. Louis, she must have had their faces in her mind when she was to sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

In the movie, Judy’s character was to move from New York to St. Louis, saying good bye to a boy she had fallen in love with…the song was to be wistful and sad, and the line was “…have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last, next year we will be living in the past.”

When Garland saw the lyric and realized all the soldiers that would hear the song from overseas, she refused to sing it the way it was written, demanding instead a lighter more optimistic tone…

"have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light, from now on our troubles will be out of sight."

It was released in 1944, and she was right- it was a huge hit- home sick soldiers clung to each note and there were many tears whenever she sang it in public. The song also became somewhat of an anchor in her own troubled life. For the next 25 years, Judy Garland would feature the song in her performances, its message of hope as much for her as for anyone else.

Adapted from Ace Collins' Stories Behind The Best Loved Songs Of Christmas series.