Irish Descendants - In Praise of Christmas

Lyrics:

All hail to the days that merit more praise,
Than all the rest of the year,
And welcome to nights that double delights,
As well for poor as the peer;
Good fortune attend to each merry man's friend,
That does the best that he may,
Forgetting old wrongs with carols and songs,
To drive the cold winter away.

'Tis ill for a mind to anger inclined,
To think of small injuries now,
If wrath be to seek, do not lend her thy cheek,
Nor let her inhabit thy brow;
Cross out of thy books malevolent looks,
Both beauty and youth's decay,
And wholly consort with mirth and with sport,
To drive the cold winter away.

This time of the year is spent in good cheer,
And neighbours together do meet,
To sit by the fire, and friendly desire,
Each other in love to greet;
Old grudges forgot are put in the pot,
All sorrow beside they lay,
The old and the young doth carol this song,
To drive the cold winter away.

When Christmas's tide comes in like a bride,
With holly and ivy clad,
Twelve days in the year much mirth and good cheer,
In every household is had;
The country guise is then to devise,
Some gambols of Christmas play,
To be young and do the best that they can,
To drive the cold winter away.

All hail to the days that merit more praise,
Than all the rest of the year,
And welcome the nights that double delights,
As well for the poor as the peer;
Good fortune attend to each merry man's friend,
That does the best that he may,
Forgetting old wrongs with carols and songs,
To drive the cold winter away.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Irish
• Descendants
• In
• Praise
• of
• Christmas

[gdgest]

This is a variant of a traditional English Christmas carol, Drive The Cold Winter Away, published in Wit And Mirth: Or Pills To Purge Melancholy, a large collection of songs by Thomas d'Urfey, 1719. It was arranged and recorded by the Irish Descendants as track #3 on their 2001 CD, The Gift (Sextant Records, Markham, Ontario, recorded and mixed at Cool Blue Studios, St. John's, NL, produced by the Irish Descendants and distributed by EMI Music Canada). Thanks for sharing this ancient carol. :-)