Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett (Wartime Christmases can teach us how to ‘muddle through’ in the time of Covid, 6 December) cites the currently apposite lyrics of the Judy Garland version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and the original, more brutal version in which a little girl is told “it may be your last”. A more anodyne version later emerged in which we hear: “Through the years we all will be together / If the fates allow / Hang a shining star upon the highest bough”.
This seems a pointless revision; the Garland version strikes just the right note of melancholy yet hopeful stoicism so appropriate to this juncture in the film (set in 1903), and clearly to the 1944 wartime context in which it was produced.
Of course, listeners who haven’t seen the film won’t be any the wiser, but the concept of “muddling through” in the hope of better times to come has been lost in translation.
Sue Leckie
Edinburgh
