We'll Muddle Through Somehow

I am weary of carols. If I never heard another Christmas song by Andy Williams, Dean Martin, Burl Ives, Mariah Carey, Paul McCartney or Mannheim Steamshovel again, I'd consider that a life happily spent. 

There are four good Christmas songs. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Judy Garland is at the top. No other version will do. First, because it's melancholy, the season's best emotion (Karen finds this dumbfounding, but I maintain Christmas is best met with a tinge of bleakly nostalgic sadness). 

Second, because it's from the movie "Meet Me in St. Louis," released in November 1944. I can only imagine how the original lyrics--"Next year all our troubles will be miles away . . . Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow"--would have hit audiences like a sledgehammer during the separations and deprivations of World War 2. There wouldn't have been a dry eye in the house. Frank Sinatra and subsequent singers rewrote the lyrics because they thought they were too depressing, but for when they were composed, they're perfect.

Third, because it's Judy Garland.