Here We Come A-wassailing

"Here We Come A-wassailing" (or "Here We Come A-Caroling"), also known as "Here We Come A-Christmasing", "Wassail Song" and by many other names, is a traditional English Christmas carol and New Year song,[1] typically sung whilst wassailing, or singing carols, wishing good health and exchanging gifts door to door.

[4][1] The a- in "a-wassailing" is an archaic intensifying prefix; compare "A-Hunting We Will Go" and lyrics to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (e.g., "Six geese a-laying").

According to Reader's Digest, "the Christmas spirit often made the rich a little more generous than usual, and bands of beggars and orphans used to dance their way through the snowy streets of England, offering to sing good cheer and to tell good fortune if the householder would give them a drink from his wassail bowl or a penny or a pork pie or, let them stand for a few minutes beside the warmth of his hearth.

The wassail bowl itself was a hearty combination of hot ale or beer, apples, spices and mead, just alcoholic enough to warm tingling toes and fingers of the singers.

"[5] In 1949, the Welsh folk singer Phil Tanner sang a minor-key variant called "Wassail Song" and generally known as "Gower Wassail",[6] which was popularised by various folk revival groups.

This version also often has the second line of the chorus "And a merry Christmas too" or "And to you glad tidings too", instead of "And to you your wassail too".

One version is presented below, based on the text given in The New Oxford Book of Carols.

God bless the master of this house likewise the mistress too, and all the little children that round the table go.