Lyr Add: Christmasse Comes But Once a Year

Subject: Lyr Add: CHRISTMASSE COMES BUT ONCE A YEAR
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 06:30 PM

CHRISTMASSE COMES BUT ONCE A YEAR
Greensleeves variant

Let's dance and sing and make good cheer,
For Christmasse comes but once a year,
Make merry now nor draw a tear,
So early in the morning.
Then shout and sing till rafters ring,
For joy and mirth the seasons bring;
We'll welcome Father Christmasse in,
So early in the Morning.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Christmasse Comes But Once a Year
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 06:31 PM

Yes, MMario and Joe, I have a midi for this one...but I'm waiting for background and research on the origins.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Christmasse Comes But Once a Year
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 08:14 PM

singsong voice I've heard the midiiii! Nah, nah, na, nah, na!**BG** Beautiful job, Mary!

Subject: Lyr Add: CHRISTMAS COMES BUT ONCE A YEAR
From: masato sakurai
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 09:20 PM

A longer and different version is given in J. Oxenford, Old English Ditties, Selected from W, Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. 1 (Chappell & Co, n.d.[1884?], pp. 32-33). The tune is the one set to "Green-Sleeves and Pudding-Pies" in The Dancing Master (7th ed., 1686, p. 186; and later editions), which is not the ubiquitous William Ballet's Lute Book version. On the tune, see Claude M. Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music (Rutgers UP, 1966, s.v. Greensleeves, tune no. 170).

CHRISTMAS COMES BUT ONCE A YEAR
([Music] before 1580; Words completed from a fragment, by G. Macfarren)

1.
Let's dance and sing, and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year;
The holly shall deck our household gear
With its blooming winter cherry;
We'll burn the Yule log, many tapers we'll light,
And with hearts more warm, and with looks more bright,
We'll put the cold weather and care to flight,
And make old Christmas merry.

We'll doff the old gentleman's mantle of snows,
The icicles peel from his doublet and hose,
We'll thaw the blue tint from his frostbitten nose
With a cup of mull'd sack and sherry;
Then the brawn and roast beef and the turkey and chine,
The pudding, mince pie, and plum porridge divine,
The stingo, the lambs wool, the nuts and the wine
Shall make old Christmas merry.

2.
Anon, despite ev'ry whalebone prude,
Our frolicsome lasses unsubdued,
Shall rouse the old man from his drowsy mood
With the mistletoe bough, & its berry;
Then hey for a romp and a shriek and a bound,
A country dance, and a merry-go-round,
And the Lord of Misrule, as in duty bound,
Shall make old Christmas merry.

Next a song with a chorus by each supplied,
And the wassailing bowl like a full springtide,
Almost as deep, tho' not quite so wide,
As the Thames at Twickenham ferry;
Thus festive and joyful and hearty and gay,
Let's strive to prolong our visitors' stay,
'Twill be wise for a month, instead of a day,
To keep old Christmas merry.

The song is mentioned in Chappell's Popular Music (1859), where the words are not given. Judging from Chappell's comment: "It ["Greensleeves"] will also be recognised as the air of Christmas comes but once a year, and many another merry ditty" (vol. 1, p. 227), "Christmas comes" may have been quite popular at that time.

There're two rhymes containing the line "Christmas comes but once a year" in William S. Baring-Gould and Ceil Baring-Gould, The Annotated Mother Goose (Bramhall House, 1962, p. 195):

Bounce, buckram, velvet's dear,
Christmas comes but once a year;
And when it comes, it brings good cheer,
But when it's gone it's never near.

Christmas comes but once a year
And when it comes it brings good cheer,
A pocketful of money, and a cellar full of beer,
And a good fat pig to last you all the year.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Christmasse Comes But Once a Year
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 09:25 PM

Thanks Masato, that's great! Is the tune we heard at the online site the correct one?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Christmasse Comes But Once a Year
From: CapriUni
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 12:45 AM

Masato --

In the attribution to this thread, you wrote: "Words completed from a fragment, by G. Macfarren".

Where did G. Macfarren find the fragments, do you know? and do you know when the new lyrics were written?

Just wondering...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Christmasse Comes But Once a Year
From: masato sakurai
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 01:14 AM

CapriUni,

I just copyed it from Oxenford's book. It is all that was written, and I don't know when the lyrics were written by whom and what was the "fragment." G.A. Macfarren was the person who did "the symphonies and accompaniments" to the songs in the book.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Christmasse Comes But Once a Year
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 06:43 AM

Masato, the two rhymes at the end of your post sound a lot like the end of any of a number of mummer's plays. I'll check my collection and see if any matches up to this one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Christmasse Comes But Once a Year
From: masato sakurai
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 07:06 AM

These rhymes are also in the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, new edition (no. 81; p. 120), but there's no mention of mummer's plays in the note.
~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Christmasse Comes But Once a Year
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 05:55 PM

Hear a midi of the tune here.