Welcome, Merry Christmas

Alternate Title: Be Merry All, Be Merry All

Words and Music: Unknown

Source: William Henry Husk, Songs of the Nativity (London: John Camden Hotten, 1868)

1. Be merry all, be merry all,
With holly dress the festive hall,
Prepare the song, the feast, the ball,
To welcome merry Christmas.

2. And oh! remember, gentles gay,
For you who bask in fortune's ray,
The year is all a holiday, --
    The poor have only Christmas.

3. When you with velvets mantled o'er
Defy December's tempest's roar,
Oh, spare one garment from your store,
    To clothe the poor at Christmas.

4. When you the costly banquet deal
To guests, who never famine feel,
Oh, spare one morsel from your meal,
    To feed the poor at Christmas

5. When gen'rous wine your care controls,
And gives new joy to happiest souls,
Oh, spare one goblet from your bowls,
    To cheer the poor at Christmas.

6. So shall each note of mirth appear
More sweet to heaven than praise or prayer,
And Angels, in their Carols there,
    Shall bless the poor at Christmas.

Husk's Note:

This very pleasing carol, in all probability one of the latest productions of its class, is from a broadside printed at Devonport, and intended for circulation throughout Devonshire, Cornwall, and Monmouthshire. It furnishes evidence of considerable ability in the unknown writer, and we might look in vain, perhaps, for a better exhortation to remembrance of the Psalmist's text, "Blessed is he that considereth the poor and needy; the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble." [Psalm 41, KJV/RSV]

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