This is a story in four scenes, showing how a secular Christmas song, with a pessimistic outlook, morphed into a positive affirmation of faith in Jesus Christ.
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” has three distinctly different versions as well as one which has only minor changes from the most famous version.
Scene One: Hugh Martin, with impressive credentials as a writer of musicals for Broadway and for Hollywood, wrote the original version of this song and other music for the 1944 movie, Meet Me in St. Louis. 1
Scene Two: Judy Garland was supposed to sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in the film. However, when she saw the words, she asked the composer to make some changes. After some hesitation, Mr. Martin gave in.
Scene Three: Some years later, when Frank Sinatra was planning to record the song, he asked for more changes. These involved a small number of words, but these were significant for the content.
Scene Four: Martin made the final major change many years later at his own initiative. This rewrite dramatically altered the theme of the song. This rewrite also reflected a major change in Martin’s outlook on life.
In the movie, as Christmas approaches, a family is upset when the authoritarian father springs the news that they are moving from St. Louis to New York City. With little regard for their feelings, he assures his wife and children that they will like their new home and have lots more money. But the move will mean breaking up friendships and courtships. One of the older sisters is hoping to get engaged almost any minute, so she doesn’t know how that romance will be affected.
Against this background, Judy Garland sings the Christmas song to her on-screen younger sister, child star Margaret O’Brien, in the attempt to cheer her up about the impending move.
Trying to capture this dismal mood, Martin wrote some very dismal words in the original version. For example, they are urged to have “a merry little Christmas” because “it may be your last.” When they go to New York, they all may be “living in the past.” Their faithful friends will be near to them “no more” instead of “once more,” as it is sung in a later version.
The song offers the bottom line: The family will be together “if the Lord allows.” Meantime, they will “have to muddle through somehow” and try to have “a merry little Christmas now.”
No wonder Judy Garland didn’t want to sing these thoroughly pessimistic lyrics in a wartime movie which was calculated to bring cheer to the country. Despite Garland’s star power, Martin at first balked at her request. He said it took a while to get over his hurt pride at being edited --- a sentiment any writer can identify with.
Then, after nursing his bruised ego for a while, Hugh Martin obliged the film’s name star and came up with the well-known words which are preserved on film and were the standard version of the song as recorded by many well-known artists.
There’s still a melancholy undercurrent in this version, acknowledging that Christmas this year isn’t going to be what the family had hoped for. But a chin-up hope or wish is expressed twice: that “next year,” with light hearts and gaiety, troubles will be “far away” or “out of sight.”
In this revised version, dependence on God is replaced with leaving the outcome to fate: “If the Lord allows” is changed to “if the fates allow.” But the bottom line, in both the original and in the version that made it to the screen, is that “we’ll have to muddle through somehow” in the effort to have that “merry little Christmas.”
Sinatra recorded the movie version of the song in 1947 after it had found its way into popular usage. Then, a decade later, he wanted to include the song in an album called A Jolly Christmas, but he didn’t think the lyrics were “jolly” enough. So he prevailed upon Martin to do some more editing and “jolly it up” for him. The main change this time was to remove the line about having to “muddle through somehow” and replace it with the hanging of a star on “the highest bough” in order to have a “merry little Christmas.” Also, the “Sinatra” version did away with the need to wait till “next year” when troubles would all be gone. Instead of “next year,” the rewrite declares, “From now on, our troubles will be out of sight.” These “jollier” words are more commonly used these days, but the fates rather than the Lord are still the determining factor in achieving the desired goal.
Though Martin had attained fame and wealth through his music, he was not content within himself as he moved in entertainment circles. He said this environment was "wonderful in a way but very temporal, very superficial . . . a very self-centered existence." 2
This inability to reconcile himself to the kind of life he was living brought him to what he calls “a full-blown nervous breakdown” in 1960. With a feeling of utter helplessness in his own strength, he began praying to God for help. In working through this experience, he emerged with faith in Christ. A few years later, Martin became closely identified with the Seventh Day Adventists.
With this reorientation of his life, Martin later wrote an entirely different version of his old song. In 2001, at the age of 86, using the same familiar tune, he wrote “Have Yourself a Blessed Little Christmas,” with a forthright Christian message: 3
Christ the King is born;
Let your voices ring upon this happy morn.
Now, instead of having a merry little Christmas “if the fates allow,” the new song calls us to
And have yourself a blessed little Christmas . . . now.
Original version---With life heavily bearing down, we may not be able to cope with Christmas. We associate the holiday with good cheer and light heartedness. When that balance is upset, the season may be too much to contend with, and this version reflects that discouragement. It may prove especially difficult to face the first Christmas after the death of someone dear. If a loved one died in the holiday season, every Christmas may be painful for family gatherings during holidays. Muddling may be the best we can do.
Movie version---Sometimes life seems to get put on hold, with loss of a job, an extended hospitalization, or a family member away in military service. In these situations, celebration of Christmas may be delayed until the absent loved one is able to be with the family or circle of special friends. For some, Christmas is specifically identified with a family gathering and exchange of presents. So they may say, “We had our Christmas a week early before Ralph had to go back to Afghanistan” or “We waited about Christmas till Shirley got out of the hospital.” The family in the movie feels life being reduced to a freeze frame. A lot of muddling.
Sinatra’s Version---The theme in this version seems to be, “Life is what you make it, so we’re gonna hang that star on the highest bough, come what may.” There’s no indication that this is the star of Bethlehem which guided the Wise Men. It may simply be the star on which we wish for a better day. This is akin to a later Christmas song from Broadway’s Mame: “We need a little Christmas,” so we “haul out the holly” and “slice up the fruitcake” in the attempt to find merriment when there’s little justification for merriment. “We’re going to have ‘a merry little Christmas’ if it kills us.”
Blessed Christmas Version---Here, the focus is on the real “original” version of Christmas. With so many superficial approaches to the season, the birth of Jesus can easily get buried. Hugh Martin’s decision to use the familiar tune, with its secular connotations, as the basis for a positive Christian song is a dramatic testimony to the change in his life.
The lyrics of “Have Yourself a Blessed Little Christmas” point to Jesus as “Son of God/ And a friend to all,” the heart of the Christmas message. There’s no more hoping to get through the season “if the fates allow,” no more muddling through somehow in order to “have yourself a merry little Christmas.”
Family gatherings with feasts and presents under the tree can be wonderful experiences in and of themselves, filled with rich fellowship and deep emotion. Infused with the awe and wonder of the Son of God coming into the world as a friend to all, those events can be more wonderful, enabling us to have truly “a blessed little Christmas.”
Although there are no passages specifically indicated as songs in the Christmas stories in the Bible, many passages have been set to music. We imagine the angels sang “Glory to God in the Highest” when they brought “good news of great joy” which would be “for all people.”
Also Mary’s lengthy words of praise in Luke 1:46-55 are widely believed to be a song. It is traditionally known as “The Magnificat,” based on the opening words, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Magnificat is the Latin word for magnify or make great.
Here are the opening verses:
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name” (vv. 46-49).
After the initial shock of learning of her impending motherhood, Mary’s song indicates she will “have herself a blessed little Christmas.”
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