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God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

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"God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" is a surprising favorite among children, both in their hymnals and amongst child-singers.  It is not written for children and contains antiquated language ("ye") and concepts ("resting merry" and "gentlemen").  But the tune is certainly engaging, possibly because it was originally a folksong and a part of folk dance culture.  Early- to mid-century Victorians started combing folksong-culture for music and it was William Sandys who collected many for his Christmas Carols New and Old (1833), as did Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams as part of the late-century English Folksong Revival, which led to the “discovery” of “God rest ye merry,” “A virgin most pure,” and “The first nowell,” among others. 

This hymn was one of the 2023 choir's favorites.   Again, this is very surprising given that it was not one of the children's carols I had selected for the group and has very "old-fashioned" language:

God rest ye, merry Gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ our Saviour
Was born on Christmas Day.
To save us all from Satan's power,
When we were gone astray.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, 
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!

Read more about its history and find a score, here.
 

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  1. Part 4: Christmas Carols Alisa Clapp-Itnyre

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  1. Children at Xmas play