“We have before us at this time a collection of carols printed in the cheapest form, at Birmingham, uniting for the most part extreme simplicity, with distinct doctrinal teaching, a combination which constitutes the excellence of a popular religious literature. From this little volume we will extract one which might well take the place of the passage from Milton for Christmas Day. It is called The Holly and the Ivy.”
Review of Rivington, Sertum Ecclesiae, the Church’s Flowers, 1849

The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown
Of all the trees that are in the wood
The holly bears the crown.
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly bears a prickle,
as sharp as any thorn;
and Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
to wear a cruel crown.
O the rising of the sun…

The holly bears a bark
As bitter as any gall;
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To suffer for us all.
O the rising of the sun…

The holly and the ivy,
when they are both full grown
Of all the trees that are in the wood,
The holly bears the crown.
O the rising of the sun…

The melody for the carol was first published in Cecil Sharp’s 1911 collection English Folk-Carols. Sharp states that he heard the tune sung by “Mrs. Mary Clayton, at Chipping Camden”. Sharp’s manuscript transcription of Clayton’s singing of the third verse, dated “Jan 13th 1909”, is archived in the Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection at Clare College, Cambridge and viewable online.