“Forget your troubles, and just get happy!   Ya better chase all your cares away!” (Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, 1930)

As the year ends and the holiday season begins, due to life changes or loss, this season can be sad, careworn, and troublesome for many of your clients, residents, students, and family members.   With this in mind, as you open the Guidebook to December, begin your discussion with:

What is it about this film that makes us happy?      

Welcome to the 2019  Holiday Edition -- White Christmas – Get Happy

Is it the Irving Berlin score, which includes songs like Sisters, Blue Skies, and of course, the iconic White Christmas?  Yes.

The score is a significant character in the story. It acts as a catalyst to put characters on the path to romance (The Best Things Happy While Your Dancing), provides comfort (Count Your Blessings), expresses anger and disappointment (Love You Didn’t Do Right By Me) ,and joy (Mandy, There’s A Minister Handy, White Christmas).

For your clientele, the score can open the floodgates to fluency (for those with self-expression issues) or trigger memories of holiday decorating, or watching the film with loved ones on a snowy Christmas Eve, and singing along with Bing!

Is it the actors/characters that make us happy?  Yes.

All the actors/characters possess attributes that get them noticed: 

• The voices of Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney

•  Vera-Ellen’s dancing

• The comedy of Mary Wicks

However,  it is Danny Kaye’s Phil Davis that utilizes all these attributes and molds him into a memorable character.

A character to be quoted: (“My dear partner, when what's left of you gets around to what's left to be gotten, what's left to be gotten won't be worth getting, whatever it is you've got left.”)

A character to be praised for his dancing and singing ability (with Vera-Ellen ~ The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing)

And finally:

A character who is beloved for his sense of comedy. (After a “fall” down the stairs, Phil experiences a “small internal muscular hemorrhage”),  a scheme to keep the General away from his favorite television show. Phil Davis makes us laugh. Laughter propagates happiness.

Is it the story that makes us happy? Yes.

The story follows the traditional musical formula of boy meets girl and has a healthy dose of misunderstanding.

It is precisely this formula that draws us to the classic film. We don’t want Love at First Sight (Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen). We want:

• The blush of attraction. (Bing sees Rosemary in a nightclub in Florida.)

• The flirting (masked nicely as an argument at the club)

• The coming together (kissing at the ski lodge) 

• The entrance of egos that lead to a fight,  and break up.

• The chase to get the girl back. (A trip to New York, an apology and a knight on a white  horse).

As the story concludes, the audience feels the happiness that comes from the knowledge that while the world around us changes daily, there is comfort in knowing that the classic movie musical stays the same. It is a place to go when we want to “Get Happy.”

Merry Christmas! Have a Safe and Happy Holiday!

~~Lori