I’ve always maintained that many Christmas songs, far from being the merry-fest some would have you believe, are actually sadder than most people realize. There is often an underlying thread of melancholy that runs through them ~ ‘Silent Night’, ‘The First Noel’, ‘Away in a Manger’ ~ these are depressing dirges. Moving yes, but mournful too. Sometimes they’re filled with longing and yearning ~ ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’, ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ and this ‘Christmas Waltz’, a slower-paced waltz that speaks of lonely nights, solitary cocktails, and some elusive eleventh-hour epiphany of redemptive romantic love.
Yet what happens when there is no Christmas miracle here? When there is no solace? What happens if the only realization is that Christmas comes but once a year, and never really changes anything? Then, I think, we have to pretend to believe, and if we are lulled by a pleasant Christmas waltz let’s rise to the occasion and dance. Who better to get that started than Doris Day?
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