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I'm thinking this morning about Christmas nostalgia, and how our popular Christmas culture is, in many ways, frozen.
The American popular Christmas traditions are heavily influenced by the Second World War and the post-war baby boom generation.
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The American popular Christmas traditions are heavily influenced by the Second World War and the post-war baby boom generation.
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But as we head into our first pandemic Christmas in 100 years, I find myself thinking about the minor key melancholy elements of Christmas.
The ones we find just beneath the surface of so many popular secular Christmas songs.
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The ones we find just beneath the surface of so many popular secular Christmas songs.
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Perhaps the most famous of these is "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," written for Meet Me in St. Louis during WWII and sung by Judy Garland.
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This song, the original version, always makes me think of my grandparents. My grandfather was always singing one melancholy song or another to himself, and always compared his wife to Judy Garland.
He died this year. We still haven't had a funeral. It isn't safe.
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He died this year. We still haven't had a funeral. It isn't safe.
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But once the war was over, the song no longer fit the national mood. The conflict in Korea was quickly glossed over. The second half of the 20th Century was the United States patting itself on the back for its victory.
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Those depressing lyrics needed to be changed to something more palatable. "Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow?" That won't do. So Frank Sinatra demanded something more exultant. Because of course he did.
6/ https://ew.com/article/2007/01/08/history-popular-holiday-song/
6/ https://ew.com/article/2007/01/08/history-popular-holiday-song/
But the Judy Garland lyrics seem fitting for this year, overwhelmed and uncertain, living in the shadow of an ongoing pandemic, but still with some hope for the future.
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"Next year all our troubles will be miles away
Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were 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 to muddle through somehow"
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Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were 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 to muddle through somehow"
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"Someday soon we all will be together,"
Soon. Maybe. But not this year. Not this Christmas.
Another still popular song, dating from that same era, "I'll Be Home for Christmas," carries a similar message: We won't be together this year, and it's hard.
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Soon. Maybe. But not this year. Not this Christmas.
Another still popular song, dating from that same era, "I'll Be Home for Christmas," carries a similar message: We won't be together this year, and it's hard.
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The singer relates the ideal features of his Christmas at home in a world without war and insurmountable distance.
"Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams"
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"Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams"
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As it happens, there is another song with the same title, "I'll Be Home for Christmas," released that same year, 1943, when so many people were celebrating far from their loved ones. It was featured in the Glenn Miller Christmas special that year.
The following year, Miller, one of the most famous musicians of his era, would be a casualty of the war.
The week before Christmas, his plane was shot down over the English channel.
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The week before Christmas, his plane was shot down over the English channel.
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This is not the Second World War. I can't pretend to imagine how my grandparents' generation felt. But Maj. Miller's death makes me think of how many people we have lost and how needlessly. Celebrities like him, but so many people, friends and loved ones.
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But those of us who celebrate Christmas and other holidays this year, are all trying to find whatever small joys we can in the season, even if we must spend it in relative isolation, far from our families and traditions.
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This year I have seen more Hanukkah lights on Twitter than ever before. It is not my culture or my people, but seeing the celebrations brings me joy.
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This year I also sent out Christmas cards for the first time, and bought lights for outside. It just seemed like the time to go a little more over the top. If we can't be together, at least we can drop a message, and light up the neighborhood.
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When I was looking for the music for this thread, YouTube recommended this to me. It seems like the appropriate 2020 Christmas song. A 60 year old song, depicted almost as a Zoom call about a party no one can go to:
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