My favorite holiday moving isn’t really a Christmas movie, but it has my favorite Christmas song. Meet Me in St. Louis covers a year in the life of a family just preceding the St. Louis World’s Fair.
Toward the end of the movie, there is a whole section about the family’s Christmas. The father has accepted a job promotion which requires them to move to New York, so the holiday is very bittersweet since it is there last in their familiar setting.
Judy Garland sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Every time I hear the song whether it is the Judy Garland version or someone else’s I always feel a flood of emotion. It reminds me of holidays when I was a kid and how you think that’s how it will be forever, but then things change. Circumstances change. People go out of your life. Traditions change.
Growing up, my family always had a party on Christmas eve. I got married and moved to L.A., my brother spent his holidays elsewhere, my father died and the tradition went dormant for years, only to be picked up again when my son was born. My mother and brother came for the holidays and I threw the party on Christmas eve. Now my mother is gone and my brother doesn’t want to fight the crowd to come cross country.
But new traditions start. For a while we had Christmas dinner at the beach, then at a Japanese teppan restaurant. Last year and this, it was Chinese food and a movie. Just me, my husband, my son and his fiancé.
It’s pointless to fret over change. You can’t hang onto things anymore than you can keep a snowflake.
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To me, getting together with family, however it's done and with whatever new traditions may be started, are what the season is all about. I hope your Chinese dinner was a good one, Betty!
BTW, I hope no one minds my mentioning this here, but please come visit me at my guest blog on The Lipstick Chronicles today if you're interested in learning about New Year's resolutions for pets.
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