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!
Sweet blessings attend each merry man's friend
that doth but the best that he may,
Forgetting old wrongs, with poems and songs,
to drive the cold winter away.
'Tis ill for the mind to anger inclined
to think of small injuries now;
If wroth be to seek, don't lend her thy cheek,
don't let her inhabit thy brow.
Cross out of thy books malevolent looks,
both beauty and youth's decay,
And spend the long nights in honest delights
to drive the cold winter away.
This time of the year is spent in good cheer
with neighbors together to meet,
To sit by the fire, with friendly desire,
with others in love to be;
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.