We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Year: 1640

Written By: Unknown

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While many Christmas carols during the holiday season are centered around the reason for the season and the birth of Christ there are a few that are humorous and just plain fun to sing and listen to. We wish you a Merry Christmas is one such song and I have enjoyed singing on caroling jaunts for years. I never thought about the history of We Wish You a Merry Christmas until recently though.

We wish you a Merry Christmas is a 16^th century English carol from the West Country of England. This song has a more humorous twist than most your traditional Christmas carols and is one of the few songs to mention the New Year's Celebration. It reflects the humor of the Victorian era and the then Christmas Carolers love for sweet and figgy pudding. Figgy pudding is like today's modern Christmas pudding and a holiday favorite at that time in history.

We Wish you a Merry Christmas is centered around the origins of the English Christmas tradition of the Wealthy English giving treats to the carolers on Christmas Eve. At that time, Carolers were hired by the English to entertain them on Christmas Eve and paid with treats and food.

The author of the beloved Christmas carol is unknown as is the composer but that hasn't stopped carolers and others from singing it over the decades.

The lyrics themselves are funny and the meaning's behind them. Like "We wish you a Merry Christmas" was simply put a line to greet the household the carolers were singing at. And "Oh, bring us some figgy pudding, we won't go until we get some" was saying that basically the carolers were there to sing and would keep singing until they got paid.

From 1647-1660 Christmas carols were banned by the church, specifically Protestant Oliver Cromwell who thought that the songs made a mockery of the holiday and made it less somber than it should be. Churchgoers then started going door-to-door singing so that the traditional songs could be kept alive. It wasn't until the 19^th century that Christmas carols became popular once again.

The fun and humorous song has been recreated quite a few times over the decades. The most notable singers are John Denver and the Muppets, James Belushi in the movie Jingle all the Way, William Studwell, Carol Mueller and country legend Johnny Cash.

Regardless, of the origins or the singer We Wish you a Merry Christmas has been and will continue to be one of the favorite carols to sing during the holiday season for us all.