Deck the Halls Lyrics
Three verses about decorating the house, putting on bright clothes and singing together, with a 'fa la la' after every line. The tune is an old Welsh melody, and the English words printed here are the ones sung in school songbooks of the 1920s.
Deck the Halls
Deck the hall with boughs of holly
'Tis the season to be jolly,
Don we now our gay apparel,
Troll the ancient Christmas carol.
See the blazing yule before us,
Strike the harp and join the chorus,
Follow me in merry measure,
While I tell of Christmas treasure.
Fast away the old year passes,
Hail the new! ye lads and lasses;
Sing we joyous all together,
Heedless of the wind and weather.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/deck-the-halls/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Tune
- Brisk and cheerful, with the 'fa la la la la la la la la' sung after each line
- Best for ages
- 3 to 10 years
What Does Deck the Halls Mean?
Every line in this song is an invitation. Deck means decorate, and boughs of holly are branches of the prickly green plant with red berries that is hung up in winter. Don means put on, and gay apparel is an old phrase for bright, cheerful clothes. In this old sense gay simply meant bright and cheerful. Troll means to sing out in a full, rolling voice, an old use of the word.
The second verse brings a blazing yule, the big log burned in the fireplace at midwinter, and asks the harp to play and everyone to join in the chorus. Measure once meant a dance step, so "follow me in merry measure" means follow me in a happy dance. The third verse says goodbye to the old year, calls the "lads and lasses" (boys and girls) to sing together, and ignores the wind and weather outside.
The songbook adds a direction under the words: after each line the singers add "fa, la, la". Singing it that way gives every line a bouncy second half, which makes it easy for a group to join in even before they know the words.
History and Origin
The tune is old and Welsh. The 1924 songbook that supplies these words labels the melody "Traditional Old Welsh Melody". The English words go back to Thomas Oliphant, a Scottish musician, in 1862. Later songbooks changed some of them, and this page gives them as the 1924 book prints them. Welsh words went with the tune before that.
The book prints the first line as "Deck the hall", singular. Most people now sing "halls".
Learning Activities
- Fa la la echo: an adult sings each line and the children answer with the 'fa la la' part, once with a big voice and once as quietly as they can.
- Paper holly: cut leaf shapes from green paper and add red dots for berries, then hang them across a window while singing.
- Merry measure: in verse two, take four steps in one direction and four back, to the beat of the line.
- Bright clothes day: for 'gay apparel', let each child choose one bright scarf or hat to put on for the song.