Christmas Comes, Again We Welcome

For Christmas Eve, For Christmas

Words: Anonymous

Music: Not Stated

Source: Christmas Carols (London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., and Birmingham: Cornish Brothers, circa 1869), pp. 5-6.

Christmas comes, again we welcome
    Tidings of the Saviour’s birth ;
Let us deck the church with garlands,
    Emblems of our holy mirth.
Gather boughs of prickly holly,
    With its leaves of shining green,
And the scarlet berries peeping
    From beneath their leafy screen.

On the hill-side steep and dreary,
    Thickly lies th’ untrodden snow;
There the pine trees dark and gloomy,
    And the slender larches grow.
Spare not of their fragrant branches;
    And, with blossoms white and red,
Bring the pretty laurustinus
    From the sheltered garden-bed.

Where the yew trees cast their shadows
    O’er the dead that sleep beneath,
Pluck the branches black and sombre,
    We will twine them in our wreath.
Bring the ivy’s purple berries,
    Clustering leaves and graceful sprays ;
Bring the box tree, and the laurel,
    Mingled with sweet-scented bays.

Happy is our work, and holy,
    Garlands for our church to weave:
Let no idle word be spoken—
    Word unfit for Christmas Eve.
Think we of the angel’s message,
    As the shepherds watched their sheep ;
Works and thoughts like these will help us
    Holy Christmas well to keep.

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