Words: English Traditional, 16th Century
Music: English Folk Song
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer
1. We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
And a Happy New Year!
Refrain
Good tidings we bring for you and your kin;
We wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
2. Now bring us some figgy pudding,1
Now bring us some figgy pudding,
Now bring us some figgy pudding,
And a cup of good cheer! Refrain
3. We all like our figgy pudding;
We all like our figgy pudding;
We all like our figgy pudding;
With all its good cheer.2 Refrain
4. We won't go until we get some
We won't go until we get some
We won't go until we get some
So bring it out here!3 Refrain
5. We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
And a Happy New Year!
And a Happy New Year! Refrain
1. Some versions: "We want some figgy pudding" and ends with "Please bring it right here!" or "And bring it us here!" Return
2. Or, "So bring it out here!" Return
3. Or, "So give it us here!" Return
One version includes "So bring some out here" as the last line for all verses.
Some versions swap the order of the 3rd and 4th verses.
A Modern Alternate 4th verse
4. We all know that Santa's coming,
We all know that Santa's coming,
We all know that Santa's coming,
And soon will be here. Refrain
Another Refrain:
Good tidings to you where ever you are;
Good tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year.
"Good tidings we bring to you and your kin" is one variant of the first line of the refrain. Another is "Good tidings we bring, to you and to yours." "Glad tidings" is also found for "Good tidings."
See A Garritan Community Christmas for an MP3:
We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Jeff Turner
Notes:
This old luck song is said to come from the West of England in the 16th century, but almost nothing else is known of this song. It does not occur in any of the oldest sources to which I have access (that is, Kele, Gilbert, Sandys, Sylvestre, Husk, Bullen, Bramley & Stainer, Greene, The Oxford Book of Carols, etc.), but is regularly found in most modern collections of carols, and is very frequently heard during the Christmas-tide (although Keyte and Parrott feel that it is "in all too common use by modern doorstep carrolers."). Simon includes this as one of the songs found in the repertoire of the Waits.
As is the case with many old songs, there can be found a wide mixture in the selection of some individual words in the lyrics and the refrain, but there is rarely a sufficiently different version that would warrant another page. There are a couple of other versions that begin with the same first line, but are otherwise very different songs. See: We Wish You A Merry Christmas - Version 1 from Manx and We Wish You A Merry Christmas - Version 2 from Manx. A. H. Bullen also recorded a Wassailing Song whose first line was "We wish you merry Christmas, also a glad New Year." Finally, "We Wish You" is also the inspiration for a number of parodies such as We Wish You a Happy Halogen; there are other parodies that cannot be included in a family-safe web site.
Luck Songs are more fully discussed in the context of the Wassail in “Wassailing! Notes On The Songs And Traditions.”
Sources:
Keyte and Parrott, eds., The Shorter New Oxford Book of Carols
William L. Simon, ed., The Reader's Digest Merry Christmas Songbook (Pleasantville, NY: Readers Digest Association, revised 2003)
William Studwell, The Christmas Carol Reader (New York: Harrington Park Press, 1995)
