It wouldn’t be Christmas without caroling, except in places where it’s not a Christmas tradition. Years ago when I was in Britain, going to school at Harlaxton College, a group decided to go out caroling in the nearby village and I went along even though I can’t carry a tune in a bucket. There was a home in the village that had a pond that was home to three-thousand ducks, though, and every day after lunch I’d take some bread and walk up there and feed the ducks. They must have recognized my voice because as the group marched along singing the ducks came out and joined us in “Here We Come A-Waddling”, but that’s another story. The strange thing is people who lived in the village were baffled by a group caroling just for fun and thought we were collecting for charity so they kept trying to offer us money, and by the third house I’d collected ten pounds. Anyway see if you can identify these Christmas carols just from a few of the words.
1. The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
He got into a drifted bank
And then we got upsot.
2. Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes of life of gathering gloom
3. And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow…
4. We’ll have lots of fun with mister snowman,
Until the other kids knock him down.
5. And surely ye’ll be your pint-stoup!
And surely I’ll be mine!
6. Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither…
7. The bells on Penguins ring,
Make Riddler wanna fight…
8. Don’t cry for me next door neighbor…
9. May we warm him, needy and lying on hay,
With our pious embraces
10. Bring us out a mouldy cheese,
And some of your Christmas loaf.
11. Goreu pleser ar nos galan,
Tŷ a thân a theulu diddan…
12. The boar’s head, as I understand,
Is the rarest dish in all this land…
13. Somebody waits for you,
Kiss her once for me.
14. There’ll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of
Christmases long, long ago…
And before you get to the answers go to Mum Revised for a hilarious and accurate list of Twelve Additional Christmas Songs That Deserve to be Removed from the Radio.
I failed with 5/14. My favourite was #7 though 🙂
Thanks for the shout out. Merry Christmas!
Now I can’t stop singing Don’t Cry for me Argentina, and I blame you and #8
So I guess “Evita” is now part of your holiday traditions, although I think “Tubthumping” is more festive.
You helped inspire this–along with a guy I heard on a podcast who asked why no one sang all the choruses of “Jingle Bells”. I’m kind of amazed you barely got a third of the answers, though.
George Wyle *also* wrote a little tune called “The Theme From Gilligan’s Island”.
I did not do well on this quiz. But I think my fun fact should get me extra credit.
Whatever your score that fun fact guarantees a passing grade. I didn’t know that about George Wyle.
Well, you made me bring out my mirror again. I don’t know why I bothered as I was only sure about 3 of them and couldn’t have been more wrong about the others! Have a Happy Winter Solstice.
You could always use MS Paint. And I hope you had a Happy Solstice too.
I didn’t get many of these (five) but I have a good excuse. Also, I thought that #7 was from The Batman Christmas Story, that #8 was from The Evita Christmas Story, that the first of your two #12’s was from The Grendel Christmas Story, but I have good excuses about those, too. Thanks for making the most wonderful time of the year more wonderful, Chris.
All excuses are accepted, especially given the mistakes I made in the list. Thank you for helping celebrate this wonderful time of the year.