Here’s another song I didn’t realize originated in a film.
Some memorable Christmas songs first appeared in movies. Bing Crosby’s ‘White Christmas’ is perhaps the best-known example. The Rudolph TV special, while not technically a movie (and not eligible for Academy consideration, certainly) gave us ‘Silver and Gold,’ ‘The Most Wonderful Day of the Year’ and ‘A Holly Jolly Christmas.’
But my all-time favorite Christmas song? I had no idea it first appeared in Meet Me In St. Louis.
‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ – Meet Me In St. Louis
I’m tempted to rank this song even higher. ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ is not only my favorite Christmas song, it’s one of my favorite songs of any sort. It’s just so melancholy and beautiful, and perfectly captures the bittersweet nostalgic mood of my favorite holiday.
How could this song not have been nominated for an Oscar?
1944’s Meet Me In St. Louis received four nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Score and — yes — Best Original Song. But the nominated song was ‘The Trolley Song,’ not this Christmas classic.
‘The Trolley Song.’ Always catch yourself humming that one, don’t you?
Contributing to the outrage is the fact that 12 — 12! — songs were nominated for Best Original Song that year. I won’t even bother listing them all. I haven’t heard of a single one of them, including the winner, which was ‘Swinging On a Star’ from Going My Way.
Dear readers, are you as outraged by this omission as I am?
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be
Out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yule-tide gay
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
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.
Meet Me In Montauk 
I vividly recall being outraged about this snub at the time. Oh wait….
Meanwhile, I’ve never seen this movie, but that’s quite the horrific snowman massacre by that girl. And am I the only one who feels that Judy Garland’s acting is awful in that scene?
I do love this Christmas song, and there was a tender scene in the movie Family Stone when one of the characters is watching this scene after the family realizes their mother (Diane Keaton) is dying from cancer 😦 Also I do remember Swing on a Star as I was part of a major production that the wives of the OCS candidates sang this song as part of the graduation celebration-only we changed the words to “Would you like to swing on a bar” that bar being the 2nd lieutenant bar 🙂
I wish we had a video of that event! 🙂 I am surprised and, now that I’ve recovered from the surprise, incredulous and outraged that this song wasn’t nominated. What a spectacular song to have been so overlooked.