Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) is often thought of as a Christmas movie, though it's pretty evenly divided over the course of a year. Snowmen, carols, and decorated trees are just the elements most likely to linger. The film's final quarter did after all introduce the song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." To many who haven't seen Meet Me in St. Louis (and I only saw it for the first time), the tune's origin may not be known, so give due respect. It isn't like "Hot Chocolate" from The Polar Express is being sung door-to-door by church groups or covered on Bob Dylan albums.
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is sung by a heart-troubled Esther Smith (Judy Garland) to her distressed, somewhat demonic younger sister "Tootie" (Margaret O'Brien) on Christmas Eve, as the two sit on a bedroom windowsill of the house in the city they're unhappy to leave. The moment of one sister attempting to force optimism upon the other, through sentiment she's unsure she feels herself, expresses the classic movie musical's approach to the holiday better than any other. Christmas is a beginning and an end, a time of magic and rebirth, where all becomes possible even when it feels awful. It's of note that the initially penned lyric was, "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas / It may be your last." It was Garland, whose house once landed upon and crushed The Wicked Witch of the East, who would not approve such morbid words.
Meet Me in St. Louis functions as a Christmas movie, because it places it where it belongs, as the spiritual endpoint of a calendar year. Director Vincente Minnelli's moves Sally Benson's written memoir through the seasons of 1903, in painterly Technicolor and with a vibrant humour toward traditions of family, mischief and courtship.
This is an era where the most important thing a young person can do is to prove themselves a "grown up," which in Esther's case is repeatedly thwarted by unrepressed and still pleasurable immaturity.The pressure of these social dynamics (if you're not married by the time you're twenty, you may as well kill yourself) is handled with both scorn and comic affection.
Meet Me in St. Louis and The Meaning of Christmas
It would be easy to read Meet Me in St. Louis' final message as an affirmation of the status quo: do not seek change, because everything in your backyard is good enough. On the other hand, we probably should quit ignoring the good stuff in our backyards once in a while.
Christmas isn't the only festive tradition covered in Meet Me in St. Louis. Both John Carpenter and Clive Barker have cited this film's Halloween sequence as a major influence on their work.
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