We Wish You a Merry Christmas





"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is a popular English Christmas carol from the West Country of England.

History
The Bristol-based composer, conductor and organist Arthur Warrell is responsible for the popularity of the carol. Warrell arranged the tune for his own University of Bristol Madrigal Singers, and performed it with them in concert on December 6, 1935. That same year, his elaborate four-part arrangement was published by Oxford University Press, under the title "A Merry Christmas: West Country traditional song".

Warrell's arrangement is notable for using "I" instead of "we" in the words; the first line is "I wish you a Merry Christmas". It was subsequently republished in the collection Carols for Choirs (1961), and remains widely performed.

The earlier history of the carol is unclear. It is absent from the collections of West-countrymen Davies Gilbert (1822 and 1823) and William Sandys (1833), as well as from the great anthologies of Sylvester (1861) and Husk (1864). It is also missing from The Oxford Book of Carols (1928). In the comprehensive New Oxford Book of Carols (1992), editors Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott describe it as "English traditional" and "[t]he remnant of an envoie much used by wassailers and other luck visitors"; no source or date is given.

Origin
The greeting "a merry Christmas and a happy New Year" is recorded from the early eighteenth century.

A closely related verse, dating from the 1830s, runs: "We wish you a merry Christmas And a happy new year; A pocket full of money, And a cellar full of beer."

It was sung by "mummers" -- i.e. children who would go about singing from door to door to request gifts. An example is given in the short story The Christmas Mummers (1858) by Charlotte Yonge: "When at last they were all ready, off they marched, with all the little boys and girls running behind them; and went straight to Farmer Buller’s door, where they knew they should ﬁnd a welcome. They all stood in a row, and began to sing as loud as they were able: I wish you a merry Christmas And a happy New Year, A pantryful of good roast-beef, And barrels full of beer." After they are allowed in and perform a Mummers play, the boys are served beer by the farmer's maid.

Other sources show this greeting as current in different parts of England during the nineteenth century.

The origin of this Christmas carol lies in the English tradition wherein wealthy people of the community gave Christmas treats to the carolers on Christmas Eve, such as "figgy pudding" that was very much like modern-day Christmas puddings. A variety of nineteenth-century sources state that, in the West Country of England, "figgy pudding" referred to a raisin or plum pudding, not necessarily one containing figs.

Lyrics

 * 1
 * We wish you a merry Christmas,
 * We wish you a merry Christmas,
 * We wish you a merry Christmas
 * And a happy New Year.
 * Good tidings we bring
 * To you and your kin;
 * We wish you a merry Christmas
 * And a happy New Year!


 * 2
 * Oh, bring us some figgy pudding,
 * Oh, bring us some figgy pudding,
 * Oh, bring us some figgy pudding,
 * And bring it right here.
 * Good tidings we bring
 * To you and your kin;
 * We wish you a merry Christmas
 * And a happy New Year!


 * 3
 * For we all like figgy pudding,
 * We all like figgy pudding,
 * For we all like figgy pudding,
 * So bring it right here.
 * Good tidings we bring
 * To you and your kin;
 * We wish you a merry Christmas
 * And a happy New Year!


 * 4
 * We won't go until we've got some
 * We won't go until we've got some
 * We won't go until we've got some
 * So bring some out here
 * Good tidings we bring
 * To you and your kin
 * We wish you a merry Christmas
 * And a happy New Year!

The song's lyrics can frequently vary. Some common variations of these lyrics include:
 * Swapping the third and fourth verse
 * “Good tidings to you, wherever you are” or “good tidings we bring, to you of good cheer” instead of “good tidings we bring, to you and your kin”
 * “Good tidings for Christmas, and a happy new year” instead of “we wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy new year”
 * “We all like our figgy pudding, with all its good cheers” instead of “we all like figgy pudding, so bring it right here”
 * “Oh, bring us a figgy pudding, and a cup of good cheer” instead of “oh, bring us some figgy pudding, and bring it right here”
 * “Now bring us some figgy pudding” instead of “oh, bring us some figgy pudding”
 * “Glad tidings” instead of “good tidings”
 * “Christmas pudding” instead of “figgy pudding”

Other versions of the song can include these alternative verses:
 * It's a season for music
 * It's a season for music
 * It's a season for music
 * And a time of good Cheer


 * Now bring some tea and breakfast
 * Now bring some tea and breakfast
 * Now bring some tea and breakfast
 * And bring it right here


 * Christmas time is coming
 * Christmas time is coming
 * Christmas time is coming
 * It soon will be here