Loreena Mccennitt In Praise Of Christmas Lyrics

In Praise Of Christmas Lyrics

Traditional English (eighteenth century)

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
each merry man's friend
That doth but 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 your 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 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, with friendly desire,
Each other in
love to greet.
Old grudges forgot are put in the pot,
All sorrows aside
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,
Whereat the young men do best that they can
To drive the
cold winter away.