We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Traditional English Christmas Carol
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Browse piano sheets by Traditional English Christmas Carol on Zen Virtual Piano. The first documented arrangement of We Wish You a Merry Christmas as it is known today was written in 1935 by the Bristol choirmaster Arthur Sydney Warrell, who was not the author of the song. Nobody knows for sure where it began: it is thought to have been a traditional West Country tune, possibly from Somerset, and a Tudor-era origin has been speculated. The tune comes with a long past and no author to name, which leaves Warrell's name as the firmest one attached to it. The carol's own history is still unclear, though the greeting a merry Christmas and a happy New Year is on record from the early 18th century. The composer Arthur Warrell is credited with the carol's present popularity, having published a carol called A Merry Christmas in 1939. Warrell's arrangement is notable for one change of word: I instead of we, so the first line reads I wish you a Merry Christmas. The collection Carols for Choirs republished it in 1961. Set side by side, 1935 and 1939 may mark different steps in the same story, and neither settles the carol's earlier history. The famous version was completely unfamiliar outside the West Country before Warrell popularised it. In the famous version the singer demands figgy pudding from the audience and threatens not to go until some arrives. A carol that asks for figgy pudding and says it will not leave until it arrives has the sound of a house visit, with the welcome as part of the bargain.
Browse piano sheets by Traditional English Christmas Carol on Zen Virtual Piano.
The first documented arrangement of We Wish You a Merry Christmas as it is known today was written in 1935 by the Bristol choirmaster Arthur Sydney Warrell, who was not the author of the song. Nobody knows for sure where it began: it is thought to have been a traditional West Country tune, possibly from Somerset, and a Tudor-era origin has been speculated. The tune comes with a long past and no author to name, which leaves Warrell's name as the firmest one attached to it.
The carol's own history is still unclear, though the greeting a merry Christmas and a happy New Year is on record from the early 18th century. The composer Arthur Warrell is credited with the carol's present popularity, having published a carol called A Merry Christmas in 1939. Warrell's arrangement is notable for one change of word: I instead of we, so the first line reads I wish you a Merry Christmas. The collection Carols for Choirs republished it in 1961. Set side by side, 1935 and 1939 may mark different steps in the same story, and neither settles the carol's earlier history.
The famous version was completely unfamiliar outside the West Country before Warrell popularised it. In the famous version the singer demands figgy pudding from the audience and threatens not to go until some arrives. A carol that asks for figgy pudding and says it will not leave until it arrives has the sound of a house visit, with the welcome as part of the bargain.
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Traditional English Christmas Carol
Common questions
It is a traditional English carol with obscure origins. The Bristol choirmaster Arthur Sydney Warrell wrote the first documented arrangement in 1935 but was not the author of the song.
No one knows for sure, but the usual guess is a traditional West Country tune, possibly from Somerset, with a Tudor-era origin also speculated.
The first line is I wish you a Merry Christmas, because the arrangement uses the word I instead of we; Carols for Choirs republished it in 1961.
The singer demands figgy pudding from the audience and threatens not to go until some arrives.