Sans Day Carol

Watson had learned the song in the early 1900s from a man aged around fifty or sixty years named Thomas Beard, a villager in St Day in the parish of Gwennap, Cornwall.

Watson singing the song on wax cylinder; the recording can be heard online via the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

Now the holly bears a berry as green as the grass, And Mary bore Jesus, who died on the cross: Chorus 3.

Now the holly bears a berry as black as the coal, And Mary bore Jesus, who died for us all: Chorus 4.

Now the holly bears a berry, as blood is it red, Then trust we our Saviour, who rose from the dead: Chorus British hymnodist Michael Perry composed the text "When the Angel Came to Mary" which is also sung to the Sans Day Carol.