On this day (December 22) in 1973, Merle Haggard topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart with “If We Make It Through December.” The song spent four weeks at No. 1, making it the final No. 1 of 1973 and the first of 1974. While the debate surrounding whether it is a Christmas song or not, one thing all listeners can agree on is that it is an incredibly sad song.
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Haggard wrote “If We Make It Through December” and released it as a single from Merle Haggard’s Christmas Present in October 1973. The next year, he used it as the title track from a non-holiday album. This is part of the reason why people debate whether it is a Christmas song or a song about weathering hard times that happens to mention the holiday.
Merle Haggard Looks at Christmas from a Different Angle
For many families, Christmas is about gatherings, good food, and gifts. As the old holiday standard says, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. However, it can also be the most stressful time of the year. This is especially true for families who are fractured or are living in poverty.
Nearly every piece of media that depicts the holiday shows stacks of presents and plates piled high with food. As a result, children who don’t yet understand how money works have expectations for Christmas morning. At the same time, parents feel pressure to deliver for their children. That’s the feeling at the heart of “If We Make It Through December.”
Historical Context for This Haggard Classic
In the song, Merle Haggard sings from the perspective of a working-class man who has recently been laid off from his factory job. As a result, he knows that he won’t be able to afford to buy his daughter, who is too young to understand, anything for Christmas.
While it’s a sad song, the chorus is optimistic. It sees the narrator planning for a more fruitful year just around the corner. If we make it through December, we’ll be fine.
Merle Haggard didn’t just pull this story out of thin air. It was a reality for countless Americans during the 1973 Christmas season. In October that year, OAPEC announced an embargo on any country that supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. This led to an oil crisis and skyrocketing fuel prices. A perfect storm of economic forces created a steel crisis. Then, toward the end of the year, the stock market crashed.
The recession that stretched from 1973 to 1975 was marked by stagnation of wages, high unemployment, and high inflation. As a result, many working-class families found themselves struggling to put food on the table, let alone presents under the tree. They had no way of knowing how long the economic downturn would last. However, many hoped and believed that things would turn around the next year.
This thought process is seemingly natural. Think back to this time five years ago. Millions of people around the world believed that if we made it through December, the pandemic and the restrictions that came with it would come to an end.
For those who have never experienced financial hardship during the holiday season, this may be the best way to truly relate to the story Merle Haggard is telling in this song.
Featured Image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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