This Christmas

Charlottesville’s Black Box Players’ production of the “A Christmas Carol” opened last night, and the cast did a wonderful job!  Written and directed by MaryAnne Thornton, the musical includes original songs by Jim Asher, the world’s leading authority on Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request).  This is the second time Black Box Players has produced it.  They also performed “A Christmas Carol” fourteen years ago.
 
In discussing one of the songs from the play, Asher said, “We needed a sad song for the Cratchit family in the future when Tiny Tim is no longer with them, and that is no easy task – writing a sad Christmas song.” 
 
He remembered hearing an interview with composer Hugh Martin who echoed that sentiment in his description about writing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” for “Meet Me in St. Louis.”  When Martin presented Vincente Minnelli with the first draft, the director criticized it for being too depressing. Martin reworked some of the lyrics.  For example, the lines "It may be your last / Next year we may all be living in the past" became "Let your heart be light / Next year all our troubles will be out of sight.” 

In the case for “A Christmas Carol,” Asher ended up reusing a song he had recently written called “This Christmas.” 
 
“I wrote ‘This Christmas’ for the Christmas just after 9-11,” said Asher.  “The country was still distressed from that attack, and I thought ‘how do we even celebrate this year’?”
 
He pulled out that song, made a few minor adjustments, and now it’s in the “future scene” of “A Christmas Carol” when the Cratchit family tries to celebrate without Tiny Tim. 


 

This Christmas

This Christmas
I’ll light a candle in the window
With a wish each night I see it glow
For the days I used to know.
 
This Christmas
I’ll hang a keepsake on the tree
A sentimental memory
Of the days that used to be.
 
I don’t know
Why I can’t seem to keep my spirits high.
I’m not sure
I could even explain if you asked me why.
All at once
I feel lonely deep down inside.
Oh, why can’t it be
Like it used to be
This Christmas.
 
This Christmas
I seem to shiver when the winds blow –
No longer cheered up by new fallen snow
As in days of long ago.
 
This Christmas
I’ll put up mistletoe and holly
Though I’m far from feeling jolly
For the days that used to be.
 
I don’t know
Why I can’t seem to keep my spirits high.
I’m not sure
I could even explain if you asked me why.
All at once
I feel lonely deep down inside.
Oh, why can’t it be
Like it used to be
This Christmas.
 
This Christmas
I’ll light a candle in the window
With a wish each night I see it glow
For the days I used to know.
 
This Christmas
I’ll hang a keepsake on the tree
A sentimental memory
Of the days that used to be.