It’s a CoJo Christmas…
Granted, I still think you gotta save the Christmas music for after Thanksgiving, but “If We Make It Through December” isn’t technically a Christmas song… right?
I mean, it’s kind of like Die Hard… it takes place during Christmas, but isn’t really about Christmas per se… right? I don’t know…
Whether it’s a Christmas song or not, it’s a damn good one… and unfortunately, going on year two of a global pandemic, with high inflation, companies struggling to find employees, and a massive supply chain issue, it’s feeling all too relevant some 48 years later.
Written and recorded by the great Merle Haggard in 1973, it was released on the Hag’s Christmas album, Merle Haggard’s Christmas Present, and then due to the success of the song, became the title track for his next studio album a few months later.
A blue collar anthem of sorts, “If We Make It Through December” is about tough times during the holidays. Where most Christmas tunes are about holiday cheer, this song paints the grim picture of a factory worker who lost his job and isn’t really going to be able to give his daughter a good Christmas.
Couple that with the cold, shitty weather, he’s just hoping he can make it though the end of the year. I don’t know how many folks are dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh this year, but I know plenty of people that have fallen on hard times. You tell me which one is more relatable…
Cody recently released his first Christmas album, A Cody Johnson Christmas, and if you know anything about Cody, you know he just had to throw a little Merle on there.
Check it out:
