Margaret Serious

‘I’ll be Home for Christmas’ isn’t meant to be cheery, but it could help this year

I keep seeing references to the 1943 song “I’ll be Home for Christmas” as if other writers are pointing out yes, we’ll all be home, let’s make our own fun. But those writers are missing the point of the song.

Here (with a little help from LyricFind.com) are the words to the song:

I’ll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents by the tree

Christmas eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I’ll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams

I’ll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have some snow and mistletoe
And presents by the tree

Christmas eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I’ll be home for Christmas

If only in my dreams

I’ll be home for Christmas

If only in my dreams

As explained here by Vintage News, the song was meant to portray a U.S. soldier in World War II telling his family he’ll be home from The War for Christmas — “if only in my dreams.” In a way, it’s a Christmas version of “Memory,” the show-stopping tune from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Cats.” The singer is remembering the time he “knew what happiness was” at Christmas, not describing how happy he is.

Bing Crosby had the original hit record, but I first noticed a more recent version; my favorite performance of the song is by Alan Alda, of all people, in a 1973 episode of “MASH.” Alda’s character, Hawkeye Pierce, is exhausted and trying to find out who’s responsible for the Korean War. He remembers several war-related songs, and his rendition of “I’ll be Home for Christmas,” his voice choked with tears, is appropriately heartbreaking for a character who didn’t know when he would go home.

So if you can’t go home because of the virus, or because there’s no one left to go home to, this might just be the song for you this Christmas. Just think of that “If only in my dreams” as a variation on “Let the mem’ry live again.”

Peace and comfort be with you, wherever you are this Christmastime.

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Music and language