We Wish You a Merry Christmas

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is an EnglishChristmas carol, listed as numbers230 and 9681in theRoud Folk Song Index. The famous version of thecarolis from the EnglishWest Country.
TheBristol-based composer, conductor and organist Arthur Warrell (1883–1939)is responsible for the popularity of the carol. Warrell, a lecturer at theUniversity of Bristolfrom 1909,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.His composition was published byOxford University Pressthe same year under the title "A Merry Christmas: West Country traditional song".
Warrell's arrangement is notable for using "I" instead of "we" in the words; the first line is "Iwish you a Merry Christmas". It was subsequently republished in the collectionCarols for Choirs(1961), and remains widely performed.
The popular version goes as follows:
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 Palmerrecorded George Dunn ofQuarry Bank,Staffordshiresinging 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 Librarywebsite.Amy Ford ofLow Ham,Somersetsang a version called "The Singers Make Bold" to Bob and Jacqueline Patten in 1973which again used a similar chorus to the famous version and can be heard via theBritish Library Sound Archive.There are several supposedly traditional recordings which follow the famous version exactly, but these are almost certainly derived from Arthur Warrell's arrangement.
The greeting "a merry Christmas and a happy New Year" is recorded from the early eighteenth century;however, the history of the carol itself is unclear. 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;in theWest Countryof England, "figgy pudding" referred to a raisin or plum pudding, not necessarily one containing figs.In the famous version of the song, the singer demands figgy pudding from the audience, threatening to not "go until we get some".
The song is absent from the collections of West-countrymenDavies Gilbert(1822 and 1823)andWilliam Sandys(1833),as well as from the great anthologies of Sylvester (1861)and Husk (1864),andThe Oxford Book of Carols(1928). In the comprehensiveNew Oxford Book of Carols(1992), editors Hugh Keyte andAndrew Parrottdescribe it as "English traditional" and "[t]he remnant of anenvoiemuch used by wassailers and other luck visitors"; no source or date is given.The famous version of the song was completely unknown outside the West Country before Arthur Warrell popularised it.
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:
After they are allowed in and perform aMummers play, the boys are served beer by the farmer's maid.
Various sources place this version of the song in different parts of England during the nineteenth century.Several versions survived into the twentieth century and were recorded by folk song collectors in England, such as those of George Dunnand Mary EvansofQuarry Bank,Staffordshire(both recorded in 1971), as well as Miss J. Howman ofStow-on-the-Wold,Gloucestershire(1966),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.