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