If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, wouldn't it be a Merry Christmas?

A humorous, folksy rebuke to second-guessing: piling up “ifs” and “buts” (hypotheticals and excuses) doesn’t change outcomes, it only indulges wishful thinking. By imagining those words transformed into holiday treats, the line mocks the fantasy that regret or conditional reasoning can magically produce a better result. The rhetorical question—“wouldn’t it be a Merry Christmas?”—underscores the gap between what actually happened and what people wish had happened. In effect, it urges acceptance of reality and a focus on what can be done now rather than on alternate histories.