| We Wish You a Merry Christmas | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Christmas |
| Language | English |
"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is an EnglishChristmas carol, listed as numbers230 and 9681 in theRoud Folk Song Index. The famous version of thecarol is from the EnglishWest Country.
TheBristol-based composer, conductor and organist Arthur Warrell (1883–1939)[1] is responsible for the popularity of the carol. Warrell, a lecturer at theUniversity of Bristol from 1909,[2] 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.[3] His composition was published byOxford University Press the same year under the title "A Merry Christmas: West Country traditional song".[4]
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 collectionCarols for Choirs (1961), and remains widely performed.[5]
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 ofQuarry 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" as the verses; this recording can be heard on theVaughan Williams Memorial Library website.[6] Amy Ford ofLow Ham,Somerset sang a version called "The Singers Make Bold" to Bob and Jacqueline Patten in 1973[7] which again used a similar chorus to the famous version and can be heard via theBritish Library Sound Archive.[8] There are several supposedly traditional recordings which follow the famous version exactly, but these are almost certainly derived from Arthur Warrell's arrangement.[9]
The greeting "a merry Christmas and a happy New Year" is recorded from the early eighteenth century;[10] however, the history of the carol itself has yet to be clarified at the moment. Its origin probably lies in the English tradition wherein wealthy people of the community gave Christmas treats to the carolers onChristmas Eve, such as "figgy pudding" that was very much like modern-dayChristmas puddings;[11][12][13] in theWest Country of England, "figgy pudding" referred to a raisin or plum pudding, not necessarily one containing figs.[14][15][16] In the famous version of the song, the singer demands figgy pudding from the audience, threatening to not "go until we get some".[9]
The song is absent from the collections of West-countrymenDavies Gilbert (1822 and 1823)[17] andWilliam Sandys (1833),[18] as well as from the great anthologies of Sylvester (1861)[19] and Husk (1864),[20] andThe Oxford Book of Carols (1928). In the comprehensiveNew Oxford Book of Carols (1992), editors Hugh Keyte andAndrew Parrott describe it as "English traditional" and "[t]he remnant of anenvoie much used by wassailers and other luck visitors"; no source or date is given.[21] The famous version of the song was completely unknown outside the West Country before Arthur Warrell popularised it.[2]
A closely related verse, dating from the 1830s, runs:
It was sung bymummers – townsfolk who would go about singing from door to door to request gifts. An example is given in the short storyThe Christmas Mummers (1858) byCharlotte 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.[24]
After they are allowed in and perform aMummers play, the boys are served beer by the farmer's maid.[25]
Various sources place this version of the song in different parts of England during the nineteenth century.[26][27][28] Several versions survived into the twentieth century and were recorded by folk song collectors in England, such as those of George Dunn[29] and Mary Evans[30] ofQuarry Bank,Staffordshire (both recorded in 1971), as well as Miss J. Howman ofStow-on-the-Wold,Gloucestershire (1966),[31] all of which are publicly available online courtesy of theVaughan Williams Memorial Library. These versions use completely different tunes to the now famous West Country variant.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)[W]hen little children came round to our doors, and lisped their Christmas greeting, the which seems to have sadly degenerated into a scuttling round the first thing on Christmas-morn and a shouting at the doors of:
A wish you a merry Christmas
An' a happy New Year
A pocket full o' money
A cellar full o' beer.
A' apple an' a pear
An' a plum an' a cherry
An' a sup o' good ale
Ter mak' a man merry.
A horse an' a gig
An' a good fat pig
To sarve y'all th' year.
I wish you a merry Christmas, a happy New Year,
A pocket full of money, and a cellar full of beer;
A good fat pig to last you all the year.
Please to give me a New Year's gift.
The special form of asking for Christmas-boxes generally runs in rhyme, and varied in different parts of the country. That in Leeds, which is bellowed in a quick, hoarse voice through the keyhole, is:
I wish you a merry Kersmas,
A happy New Year,
A pocket full of money,
A barrel full o' beer,
A big fat pig to serve you all t'year,
Please will you give us my Kersmas-box.
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