Christmas Is Coming | Christmas Best

Christmas Is Coming
Music: English carol; Text: traditional;
addl. text: David Warner
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

Mack Wilberg’s lively concert opener is based on the old round, “Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.” The original text (augmented here with new lyrics by David Warner) was first published as an English nursery rhyme in 1883, though its Victorian-era imagery and Dickensian language suggest it may have been penned even earlier. Goose was the celebratory bird for working-class families in 19th-century England such as the Cratchits in Dickens’s tale, while turkey was an exotic luxury reserved for the wealthy. But, as exemplified by the Cratchits, Christmas was a time for gratitude, not envy. And even the poor were happy to donate what little they could spare to those who were ever needier—to “put a penny in the old man’s hat.” Or, if there were nothing to spare, invoking God’s blessing on others was another way to spread goodwill. The melody for this round is often incorrectly attributed to the 19th-century children’s author Edith Nesbit. It is, though, simply a variant on the familiar “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”

Follow The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square
Instagram: https://instagram.com/thetabernaclechoir
Facebook: https://facebook.com/thetabernaclechoir
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thetabchoir

Subscribe to “Choir Notes” the Choir’s official newsletter
https://www.thetabernaclechoir.org/connect/

Listen to The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2ZOowwN
Apple Music: https://apple.co/3mCb08b
Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/3mLn3jX

Comments

  • ×