Merle Haggard’s self-penned number from 1974 has all the elements of the perfect Christmas song – a sad, sentimental, yet optimistic lyric, and a cracking tune.

It’s always been a mystery to me that outside America, and outside the sphere of country (“and western”, as we used to say) music, Merle was not a bigger name.

He’s up there with all the greats – Hank Williams, George Jones, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings; Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette.

It’s a crying shame (and you might well shed a tear at the lyric) that these words resonate as loudly today as they did when he wrote and sang them half a century ago: 

If we make it through December
Everythings gonna be all right I know
It’s the coldest time of winter
And I shiver when I see the fallin snow

If we make it through December
I got plans of bein in a warmer town come summertime
Maybe even California
If we make it through December we’ll be fine

I got laid off down at the factory
And there timings not the greatest in the world
Heaven knows I been workin’ hard
I wanted Christmas to be right for daddy’s girl

Now I don’t mean to hate December
It’s meant to be the happy time of year
And why my little girl don’t understand
Why daddy can’t afford no Christmas here

If we make it through December
Everythings gonna be alright I know
It’s the coldest time of winter
And I shivver when I see the fallin’ snow

If we make it through December
I got plans of bein’ in a warmer town come summertime
Maybe even California
If we make it through December we’ll be fine