Bah, Humbug: The 100 Greatest Down-and-Out-on- Christmas Songs

1. Judy Garland, ''Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'' (1944 soundtrack version)
If you think this is a cheerful song, you (a) have been listening to the wrong versions and (b) must have missed our article on the history of this perennial. (Get up to speed here.) The ballad was penned for a particularly sad scene in Meet Me in St. Louis where Judy Garland tries to convince her tearful little sister Margaret O'Brien that it's okay they're about to move away from their beloved home and friends. Of course, Garland does such a poor job of uplift here that the musical number ends with O'Brien running off and destroying a snowman. That's our kind of sacrilege!