Tammy Wynette / Christmas With Tammy Wynette / 1970
Let's Put Christ Back In Christmas
earnest, reverent, gently admonishing
A straightforward devotional Christmas song that argues for restoring religious meaning to a holiday the singer feels has drifted toward commercialism. It retells the nativity story in plain, hymn-like language and repeats its title as both plea and refrain.
religious devotion nostalgia for tradition commercialization of Christmas nativity narrative communal exhortation
Who's speaking
A first-person plural voice speaking as part of a community, addressing listeners directly and urging a shared return to religious observance; the tone is sincere rather than ironic, functioning almost as a sermon set to music.
What happens
The song moves through the nativity story in miniature -- the birth announcement, the manger, the wise men's journey and gifts -- while using each retelling as a springboard back to the central appeal. It doesn't develop a personal story so much as cycle through familiar gospel imagery to reinforce its argument, ending on a wish for peace that ties the religious message to a broader, almost political plea.
How it's built
Four verse-like stanzas, each ending on the same refrain line, giving the song a litany or call-and-response quality rather than a traditional verse/chorus split. There's no bridge or key change in the lyric structure itself; instead the repetition of the closing line does the work a chorus would, hammering the thesis until the final stanza doubles it for emphasis.
Section by section
Opening stanza
Begins with the announcement of the Saviour's birth, establishing the song's frame immediately: this is retelling as persuasion, not just storytelling.
Second stanza
“Prince of Peace”
Shifts from narrative to direct characterization of Jesus, using a title that carries both religious and political weight, setting up the later turn toward peace on earth.
Third stanza
The wise men's journey is used as a model of devotion and effort, implicitly contrasting their purposeful gift-giving with a modern Christmas the song suggests has lost that focus.
Final stanza
“peace on earth at Christmas time appear”
Broadens the personal, individual-heart appeal into a communal and global wish, before closing with the doubled refrain that leaves the song's argument as the last word.
Craft
- refrain
- The repeated closing line functions as both chorus and rhetorical thesis, turning the song into an argument that restates its conclusion after every piece of supporting evidence.
- biblical allusion
- The lyric draws directly on Luke's nativity account and the story of the magi, borrowing scriptural authority rather than inventing new imagery.
- imperative mood
- Repeated commands addressed to the listener frame the song as exhortation rather than reflection, pushing the audience toward action rather than simply describing a feeling.
Reading it
Read straightforwardly, this is a traditionalist Christmas carol-adjacent song lamenting secularization and urging listeners to reorient the holiday around its religious origin. A secondary reading could note how the song's plainness and repetition mirror congregational hymn form, suggesting it was designed less as individual artistic expression than as a vehicle for communal singing and reaffirmation, fitting the conventions of country gospel Christmas records of the era.
Context
This appears on a 1970 holiday album by Tammy Wynette, an artist primarily known for emotionally raw honky-tonk and countrypolitan songs about marriage and heartbreak. The song itself is a well-known Christmas standard recorded by many country artists; I don't have reliable details on its authorship history or Wynette's specific recording session, so I'm treating this mainly as a text rather than drawing on production context I'm not certain of.
Listen for
- How the melody likely resolves on the refrain each time, reinforcing its role as thesis statement
- Any vocal warmth or restraint Wynette brings to a song outside her usual emotional register
- The steady, hymn-like pacing that prioritizes clarity of message over vocal ornamentation
- Whether the arrangement leans traditional/orchestral to underscore the song's conservative, reverent intent
About Tammy Wynette
Tammy Wynette was an American country music singer and songwriter, considered among the genre's most influential and successful artists. Wynette was one of the few singers who brought a woman's perspective to the male-dominated country music field.
1942 - 1998 / United States
Full biography and catalogue