"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is an English

Christmas carol A Christmas carol is a carol (a song or hymn) on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French or ...

, listed as numbers 230 and 9681 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 Londo ...

. The famous version of the carol is from the English

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Glouc ...

Popular version

The

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

-based composer, conductor and organist Arthur Warrell (1883-1939) is responsible for the popularity of the carol. Warrell, a lecturer at the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

from 1909, arranged the tune for his own University of Bristol Madrigal Singers as an elaborate four-part arrangement, which he performed with them in concert on December 6, 1935. His composition was published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

the same year 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 popular version begins as follows: Many traditional versions of the song have been recorded, some of which replace the last line with "Good tidings for Christmas and a happy new year". In 1971, Roy Palmer recorded George Dunn of Quarry Bank, Staffordshire singing a version close to the famous one, which had a familiar version of the chorus, but used the song "

Christmas is Coming "Christmas Is Coming" is a traditional nursery rhyme and Christmas song frequently sung as a round. It is listed as number 12817 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The most famous version goes as follows: :Christmas is coming, the geese are getti ...

" as the verses; this recording can be heard on the

Vaughan Williams Memorial Library The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) is the library and archive of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), located in the society's London headquarters, Cecil Sharp House. It is a multi-media library comprising books, periodic ...

website. Amy Ford of Low Ham,

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

sang a version called "The Singers Make Bold" to Bob and Jacqueline Patten in 1973 which again used a similar chorus to the famous version and can be heard via 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 ...

. There are several supposedly traditional recordings which follow the famous version exactly, but these are almost certainly derived from Arthur Warrell's arrangement.

History

The greeting "a merry Christmas and a happy New Year" is recorded from the early eighteenth century; however, the history of the carol itself is unclear. Its origin probably lies in the English tradition wherein wealthy people of the community gave Christmas treats to the carolers on Christmas Eve, such as "

figgy pudding Figgy Pudding (occasionally Piggy-Pudding) is a vague term used for a class of traditional Christmas dishes usually forming sweet and savory cakes, containing a sour-sweet creamy layer of honey, fruits and nuts. In later times, rum or other dist ...

" that was very much like modern-day

Christmas pudding Christmas pudding is sweet dried-fruit pudding traditionally served as part of Christmas dinner in Britain and other countries to which the tradition has been exported. It has its origins in medieval England, with early recipes making use of ...

s;Brech, Lewis (2010)
"Storybook Advent Carols Collection Songbook"
p. 48. Couples Company, Inc,Lester, Meera (2007)
"Why Does Santa Wear Red?: And 100 Other Christmas Curiosities Unwrapped"
p.146. Adams Media,
Retrieved December 11, 2010 in the West Country of England, "figgy pudding" referred to a raisin or plum pudding, not necessarily one containing figs. In the famous version of the song, the singer demands figgy pudding from the audience, threatening to not "go until we get some". The song is absent from the collections of West-countrymen

Davies Gilbert Davies Gilbert (born Davies Giddy, 6 March 1767 – 24 December 1839) was an English engineer, author, and politician. He was elected to the Royal Society on 17 November 1791 and served as President of the Royal Society from 1827 to 1830. He ...

(1822 and 1823) and William Sandys (1833), as well as from the great anthologies of Sylvester (1861) and Husk (1864), and ''

The Oxford Book of Carols ''The Oxford Book of Carols'' is a collection of vocal scores of Christmas carols and carols of other seasons. It was first published in 1928 by Oxford University Press and was edited by Percy Dearmer, Martin Shaw and Ralph Vaughan Williams. ...

'' (1928). In the comprehensive '' New Oxford Book of Carols'' (1992), editors Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott describe it as "English traditional" and " e remnant of an ''envoie'' much used by wassailers and other luck visitors"; no source or date is given. The famous version of the song was completely unknown outside the West Country before Arthur Warrell popularised it.

"Cellar full of beer" variant

A closely related verse, dating from the 1830s, runs: It was sung by "mummers" – i.e. townsfolk 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: After they are allowed in and perform a

Mummers play Mummers' plays are folk plays performed by troupes of amateur actors, traditionally all male, known as mummers or guisers (also by local names such as ''rhymers'', ''pace-eggers'', ''soulers'', ''tipteerers'', ''wrenboys'', and ''galoshins''). ...

, the boys are served beer by the farmer's maid. Various sources place this version of the song in different parts of England during the nineteenth century. Several versions survived into the twentieth century and were recorded by folk song collectors in England, such as those of George Dunn and Mary Evans of Quarry Bank, Staffordshire (both recorded in 1971), as well as Miss J. Howman of

Stow-on-the-Wold Stow-on-the-Wold is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, on top of an 800-foot (244 m) hill at the junction of main roads through the Cotswolds, including the Fosse Way (A429), which is of Roman origin. The town was founde ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

(1966), all of which are publicly available online courtesy of the

. These versions use completely different tunes to the now famous West Country variant.

References

{{Authority control Christmas carols 19th-century songs 19th century in England British Christmas songs Christmas in England

Popular version

History

"Cellar full of beer" variant

See also

References