A Blessed Christmas
It’s Christmas week and we’ve got so much to sing about!
Yep, even during – and perhaps especially during – these strange and difficult times. Even with coronavirus around, Christmas can and should be a merry occasion. Many decades ago, my friend Hugh Martin wrote “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” He composed that song for Judy Garland to sing in one of her films. And his story is, he came to Hollywood after leaving New York where he had fallen on difficult times. And somehow, someway this composer from the 40s, early 50s, having suffered a nervous breakdown – somehow, he ended up at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, which back in the 50s was a magnet for young evangelicals in that part of LA. Hugh Martin was brought to the feet of Jesus Christ where he gave his life over to his Savior. And after that? Hugh Martin went back to his piano, and he composed new words to that wonderful old classic, and although this is going to sound a little dated, I want to play a recording of it, and Hugh is actually playing the piano. I think he was 93 years old at the time. But listen in…
JONI: We got so much response from it last year, we’re going to do it redo it. You’ve only played it like, about probably 758,000 times.
HUGH: Yeah, but this was the best one, with you. That’s the one I like best.
Christmas future is far away,
Christmas past is past.
Christmas present is here to stay
With a joy that will last.
Have yourself a blessed little Christmas,
Christ the King is born.
Let your voices ring upon this happy morn.
Have yourself a blessed little Christmas,
Serenade the earth.
Tell the world we celebrate the Savior’s birth.
Let us gather to sing to him,
And to bring to him our praise.
Son of God and a friend to all
To the end of all our days.
Sing hosannas, hymns & hallelujahs,
As to him we bow.
Make the music mighty as the heav’ns allow.
And have yourself a blessed little Christmas now.
JONI: And from all of us at Joni and Friends, Hugh, you have a blessed Christmas.
HUGH: Oh, Joni, that was just perfect.
Friend listening, I’d like you to get to know Hugh Martin through a video today, as well as get a copy of these incredible words! Just visit me at joniradio.org, and you’ll find a video that shows Hugh Martin and me at the piano singing together! And while you’re on my radio page, download these Christian words to this classic, and share them with a friend, and have a blessed little Christmas this week.
© Joni and Friends
Original words and music by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane
Sacred lyrics by Hugh Martin and John Fricke
© 1943 (Renewed 1971) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. © 1944 (Renewed 1972) EMI Feist Catalog Inc.
This edition © 1996, 1997 EMI Feist Catalog Inc. All Rights Controlled by EMI Feist Catalog Inc. (Publishing) and Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc. (Print).
All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission of the Publishers.
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