About The Song
“If We Make It Through December” is a song written and recorded by American country singer Merle Haggard with his band the Strangers. Capitol Records released it as a single on October 27, 1973, with catalogue number Capitol 3746. The track was recorded earlier that year at Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville and produced by Ken Nelson. Initially it served as the lead single from Haggard’s seasonal LP Merle Haggard’s Christmas Present, issued in November 1973. A few months later it also became the title track of the non-Christmas studio album If We Make It Through December, released in February 1974 after the single’s unexpected success.
The song’s narrative reflects Haggard’s long-standing interest in working-class characters and economic anxiety. The lyric is voiced by a factory worker who has recently been laid off just before Christmas. He worries about providing a holiday for his young daughter and explains that she cannot understand why “Daddy can’t afford no Christmas gift.” The chorus offers a kind of cautious optimism—“If we make it through December, everything’s gonna be all right I know”—but the verses remain focused on cold weather, unpaid bills and displacement rather than festive celebration. Haggard later commented that he did not think of it as a pure Christmas song, seeing it instead as a portrait of hard times.
Although it appeared on a Christmas album, the single’s life quickly extended beyond holiday playlists. In early 1974 the track anchored the album If We Make It Through December, which mixed the hit with covers of older country material and new songs in a more general album context. Liner notes and later commentaries point out that this period was a transitional one in Haggard’s personal life: he and his then-wife Bonnie Owens were separating, and outside writers contributed more material than on some earlier discs. Against that background, the title track stood out as a concise, self-written account of economic and emotional strain in the wake of the early-1970s recession.
Lyrically, the song is very economical. Rather than giving a detailed backstory, it uses a handful of images—unemployment at the factory, a rented house, a small child, falling snow—to convey the pressure of the season on someone who has lost his job. The line about wanting to move to “a warmer town come summertime” underlines that the problems extend beyond Christmas itself. At the same time, the repeated chorus keeps returning to the idea that surviving the present month may open the possibility of better days ahead. This balance of resignation and hope has been cited as a key reason for the song’s long-term appeal.
Commercially, “If We Make It Through December” became one of Haggard’s biggest hits. On the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles chart it spent four consecutive weeks at No. 1 in December 1973 and January 1974, and it finished as the No. 2 country single on Billboard’s 1974 year-end list. The record also crossed over to the pop and adult-contemporary markets, peaking around No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 16 on the Easy Listening chart. In Canada it reached No. 1 on RPM’s country chart and entered the Top 30 on the main singles listing, an unusual level of crossover for a Haggard release in this period.
Over time the track has taken on the status of a modern standard in both country and seasonal repertoires. It has been included on career box sets such as Down Every Road 1962–1994 and regularly appears on Christmas and winter-themed compilations, even though its subject is broader than the holiday itself. Major publications have singled it out in retrospectives: Rolling Stone, for example, placed it among the 200 greatest country songs of all time, emphasizing its depiction of working-class uncertainty. The song has also inspired cover versions by artists including Alan Jackson, Faron Young, Marty Robbins, Joey + Rory (with Haggard guesting), Phoebe Bridgers and others, demonstrating how its combination of seasonal setting and economic realism continues to resonate with later generations of singers and listeners.
Video
Lyric
If we make it through December
Everything’s gonna be all right, I know
It’s the coldest time of winter
And I shiver when I see the falling snow
If we make it through December
Got plans to be in a warmer town come summertime
Maybe even California
If we make it through December, we’ll be fine
Got laid off down at the factory
And their timing’s not the greatest in the world
Heaven knows I been working hard
Wanted Christmas to be right for daddy’s girl
I don’t mean to hate December
It’s meant to be the happy time of year
And my little girl don’t understand
Why daddy can’t afford no Christmas here
If we make it through December
Everything’s gonna be all right, I know
It’s the coldest time of winter
And I shiver when I see the falling snow
If we make it through December
Got plans to be in a warmer town come summertime
Maybe even California
If we make it through December, we’ll be fine