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All hail to the days that merit more praise
Than all of 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 thy 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 with sport,
To drive the cold winter away.
This time of the year is spent in good cheer,
When neighbors together do meet,
To sit by the fire, in 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 of 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 the best that they can,
To drive the cold winter away.
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