"Christmas Is Coming" is a traditional

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

and

Christmas song Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...

frequently sung as a

round Round or rounds may refer to: Mathematics and science * The contour of a closed curve or surface with no sharp corners, such as an ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, cant, or sphere * Rounding, the shortening of a number to reduce the number ...

. It is listed as number 12817 in the

Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

. The most famous version goes as follows:

:Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat :Please put a penny in the old man's hat :If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do :If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless you!

The traditional version of this song uses the melody of the English dance tune "

Country Gardens "Country Gardens" is regarded as an old English folk tune traditionally used for Morris dancing, but it is unlikely to be of folk origin as it was first composed for an opera. It was introduced by traditional folk musician William Kimber to Cecil ...

", but other melodies exist. Edith Nesbit Bland composed a popular tune for the lyrics. A few field recordings were made of traditional versions of the song, including one sung by Jack Elliot of Birtley,

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

to Reg Hall in the early 1960s, which is archived within the

British Library Sound Archive The British Library Sound Archive, formerly the British Institute of Recorded Sound; also known as the National Sound Archive (NSA), in London, England is among the largest collections of recorded sound in the world, including music, spoken word a ...

The Kingston Trio The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and ...

recorded the song as "A Round About Christmas", on their album ''

The Last Month of the Year ''The Last Month of the Year'' is an album of Christmas music by the Kingston Trio, released in 1960 (see 1960 in music). It became the first Kingston Trio album release to fall below expected sales and Capitol withdrew the album from circulation ...

''. A calypso sounding version was featured on the album '' John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together'' and a loose, jazzy piano-based arrangement was featured in the musical score of ''

A Charlie Brown Christmas ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' is a 1965 animated television special. It is the first TV special based on the comic strip ''Peanuts'', by Charles M. Schulz. Produced by Lee Mendelson and directed by Bill Melendez, the program made its debut on C ...

''. The rhyme also became the basis for the song "Christmas Is a-Comin'", written by

Frank Luther Frank Luther (born Francis Luther Crow, August 4, 1899 – November 16, 1980) was an American country music singer, dance band vocalist, playwright, songwriter and pianist. Early life Born on a farm near Lakin, Kansas, 40 miles from the Colorado ...

and performed by

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...

, among others.

References

Bing Crosby songs Rounds (music) American Christmas songs American nursery rhymes Jazz standards Songwriter unknown Year of song unknown {{song-stub

See also

References