When The Carpenters sang “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” they carried a fragile hope into a new generation. Judy Garland once delivered it for a world at war, but Karen Carpenter’s hushed, golden voice turned it into a prayer — tender, aching, intimate. Richard’s piano brushed beneath her, steady as falling snow, giving the song its quiet heartbeat. And when Karen leaned into “through the years we all will be together,” it held both longing and doubt, as though sung to someone far away. More than Christmas music, it became memory itself — a reminder that love never fades.
phil THE CARPENTERS’ “HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS”: A SONG THAT BECAME MEMORY When The Carpenters sang “Have Yourself a…