Christmas Carol Sing-Along · Christmas
God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
Get ready for Christmas. Practise the carols at home, in your own time, on your own or with family and friends. First hear it, then sing it.
1 Listen
Let the choir sing it to you. Follow the music and the words.
2 Sing
Now it’s your turn. The organ plays, and the gold note shows the way.
Traditional English carol, words first printed c.1760.
On a phone? Turn it sideways and tap the full-screen button, and the music fills the screen.
This carol is traditional English, and no author is known. The earliest known printing, a broadsheet, dates from about 1760, and William Sandys included it in Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern in 1833.
The rest of the story
“God rest you merry” is an old blessing: may God keep you merry. So the comma belongs after “merry”, not after “you”. Dickens alludes to the carol in A Christmas Carol in 1843. The tune is traditional English too.
The words
God rest you merry, gentlemen,
let nothing you dismay;
remember, Christ, our Saviour
was born on Christmas day
to save us all from Satan's pow'r
when we were gone astray.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy;
O tidings of comfort and joy.
From God our heav'nly Father
a blessèd angel came;
and unto certain shepherds
brought tidings of the same:
how that in Bethlehem was born
the Son of God by name,
O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy;
O tidings of comfort and joy.
And when they came to Bethlehem
where our dear Saviour lay,
they found him in a manger
where oxen feed on hay;
his mother Mary kneeling,
unto the Lord did pray:
O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy;
O tidings of comfort and joy.
Now to the Lord sing praises,
all you within this place,
and with true love and charity
each other now embrace;
this holy tide of Christmas
all others doth deface:
O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy;
O tidings of comfort and joy.