287–288)[2] in 1836 and was later collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-19th century, varying the final lines to "The child that's born on Christmas Day/ Is fair and wise, good and gay.

"[3] Later still, another alternative is recorded: "The child of Sunday and Christmas Day,/ Is good and fair, and wise and gay.

Thomas Nashe recalled stories told to children in Suffolk in the 1570s which included "what luck eurie [every] one should have by the day of the weeke he was borne on".

The fates of Thursday's and Saturday's children were also exchanged and Sunday's child is "happy and wise" instead of "blithe and good".

[10] The whole rhyme was later included by John Rutter for a cappella choir in the collection Five Childhood Lyrics, first published in 1974.