The year is 1903. In St. Louis, Missouri, the Louisiana Purchase Fair is coming soon. The wealthy Smith family is particularly excited.

The oldest is a young man named Lon. There are also 2 teenage girls called Rose and Esther. Then there is Agnes, who is presumably a preteen. And then there is Tootie, who is only 5 years old.

The mother, Anna and her maid, Katie, are preparing dinner. In fact, they want everyone to eat an hour earlier than usual.

When Rose and Esther come inside the house, Esther reveals that she has strong feelings for the next door neighbor, John Truett. Later, Esther and Rose sing about how excited they are for the upcoming fair.

But when their father comes into the house, he tells them to stop singing. He also demands that he takes a bath and delay dinner, despite Anna’s request to eat dinner early. Nevertheless, she accommodates for him against her will.

Meanwhile, Tootie is riding a horse-drawn carriage with the iceman, Mr. Neely. She asks different questions, including about the horse leading the carriage, Robin.

Once it’s dinner time, everyone is eating. Rose is eagerly awaiting for her boyfriend, Warren Sheffield, to call.

Once Warren calls, Mr. Smith answers the phone and says insensitive things to him. That upsets Rose, who calls him back. Luckily, they have a nice conversation.

At some point, the Smiths are holding a farewell party for Lon before he goes off to college. During that time, Esther finally has a proper meeting with John and has fun with him.

The guests sing and dance – only to wake Agnes and Tootie. Despite Esther’s request for them to go back to bed, they end up joining the celebration. Tootie wants to sing a few songs, even though Esther disapproves of them because she thinks they’re too inappropriate for her. But the guests encourage Tootie to sing them anyway.

Shortly after, Tootie and Esther do a silly dance. Once the party is over, everybody leaves. Esther hopes to see John again.

Thankfully, she does. She meets him on a trolley ride to the construction of the upcoming fair.

Months have passed, and it is now Halloween. Tootie and Agnes are in their costumes. Their mother tells them to be back early in order to have ice cream. Then the girls get their bags of flour to throw.

They go to the neighborhood bonfire, where some kids are burning different furniture items. Those same children also make fun of Tootie for thinking that she can defeat some creepy neighbor that everyone fears. But Tootie claims that she can still do it.

And so she does by throwing flour at the guy and saying that she hates him. Then she runs away – only to somehow get hurt.

The Smiths find her and carry her back into the house and into her bed. Then a doctor comes to take a look at her. Tootie claims that John hurt her.

Enraged, Esther goes over to John’s house and puts him down for hurting Tootie. Yet John claims that he didn’t do it. In fact, he was trying to protect the kids from the police. So, Esther forgives him and kisses him.

Later, Tootie is feeling better and joins the rest of her family to have ice cream. However, Mr. Smith announces that he got a job opportunity in New York, meaning the family will have to move there after Christmas. While he was looking for excitement, everyone is bummed instead. So, they all go upstairs as Anna and Katie bring out some cake.

However, Anna and her husband play a pretty song on the piano and sing together. This prompts the rest of the family to come back downstairs and eat cake.

A couple of months pass, and it’s now Christmas Eve. There is a local ball happening in honor of the holidays.

Esther is excited to go with John to the event. Unfortunately,  he comes and says that he cannot go anymore because he doesn’t have access to a tuxedo. Poor Esther is heartbroken and runs to her room crying.

But to make up for that, her grandpa gladly takes her to the ball. And the 2 have a good time dancing together.

To Esther’s surprise, John actually shows up wearing a tuxedo later on. In addition, he proposes to her. But she is hesitant to accept it because her family might move to New York soon.

At home, Tootie is eagerly waiting for Santa to come. But she’s also worried about whether or not she can take all her toys with her.

Esther sings a unique rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Unfortunately, it leaves poor Tootie devastated, and she goes outside, destroying the snowmen built by her and her family that she will never see again. And she cries really hard. Esther tries to comfort her, but it doesn’t work.

Mr. Smith even notices what is happening there between Esther and Tootie. Will that prompt him to make a fair decision for his family?

This movie drew my attention in all the way through. Surprisingly, many parts also made me laugh.

The Smiths were also portrayed as a realistic family of the early 1900s. For instance, Anna told Agnes and Tootie on Halloween that they had to be back home early or they wouldn’t get any ice cream. This emphasizes how strict parents were at that time and kids had to obey them, no matter what.

This film also taught the audience some historical differences compared to today. A good example is when Agnes and Tootie went down with bags of flour on Halloween and would throw it at people. That was how kids celebrated Halloween, before trick-or-treating and getting candy became a thing in the 1920s to 30s.

In fact, I learned that from my chorus teacher when I first watched this movie in choir class in eighth grade. He paused the film and talked about that. He also did the same when Esther and Rose were wearing corsettes, and Esther had trouble breathing in hers.

But one moment of realism that stands out to me was at the beginning. Agnes was singing and then sneezed in the middle and decided to continue anyway, without making up the lyrics she missed.

All the musical numbers were good. And all the characters were well-developed.

A big part that stands out to me was how Esther would sometimes act like a mother to Tootie. A moment that emphasized that was when Esther wouldn’t let Tootie sing a song she deemed inappropriate, but the party guests wanted her to sing it anyway. The other moment was when Tootie cried over moving to New York and Esther tried to comfort her, but struggled. Watching that also made me cry, as well.

One little flaw I had with this film was that certain parts weren’t clear enough. For example, I assumed that Lon was the older brother, but sometimes struggled to remember that because he was such a minor character. Luckily, it was confirmed later in the story.

Another scene is the event celebrating Lon’s departure to college. I had assumed it was an engagement party for Rose. But then I read on Wikipedia the real answer. I wish that were actually clarified in the film.

Otherwise, I enjoyed Meet Me in St. Louis. It is a timeless classic that people of all ages can watch.

I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.