to insist that it is 'I love THEE' in Away in a Manger

[Balfe]

I have turned into one of those ancient teachers grouching in a corner but really, they're singing 'I love you Lord Jesus'.... It's got to be proper!

oh Ninja me too! re 'eg shels is' but I was too scared to mention this in case in transpired that was very very wrong.

also, definitely YE merry gentlemen, I've never heard anyone say you....

Does ye mean plural? I remember a gift shop years ago in a little village, and it's name was Ye Olde Dainty Shoppe!

Ah @Clawdy I can help you here. The 'Ye' to which you are referring is using not a Y but a typographical feature called a thorn which was a letter we no longer use. Thorn gave the 'th' sound. so all those 'Ye olde shoppe' places are just called THE old shop but using archaic spelling.

it is not the same as ye, the word...

My daughter sings "Arrest you, merry gentlemen"

And stay by my side until morning is nigh

Never ever heard “stay by my bedside ‘til morning is nigh”.

I know “stay by my side until morning is nigh”. With a little wobble on the “til” of “until”.

And no, they are NOT "merry gentlemen"!!!!!

And no, they are NOT "merry gentlemen"!!!!!

What do you mean, @Bertrand? I am puzzling over this.

It’s God rest ye merry, gentlemen

Ah! Gotcha. Thanks

Loads of littlies singing 'You and your King' at DS2's Nativity last night . A soloist sang 'Stay by my side until morning is night' too.

But the real travesty was the tune they sang 'O Little Town of Bethlehem' to! It was some newfangled sped up version with a totally different tune, that sounded like it was from a Broadway musical or something. So wrong!

It was still lovely though and I had a tear in my eye watching DS singing Little Donkey. At least they've not butchered that tune yet.

To be fair, "God rest ye, merry gentlemen" was in use over 200 years ago, including by Dickens...

I've been caught out by the new Lord's Prayer too But it wasn't too bad as everyone else drowned my wrong version out - unlike when I was caught out by not knowing the Catholic Lord's Prayer is shorter, and carried on going all by myself

I remember my dad saying that when he was little, they sang God rest ye, Jerry Mendelson. Name of one of their friend's dad!

I often sing "God rest ye, jerry mentalmen". Just because I can. I'd never heard of "God rest ye merry, gentlemen" though I suppose it makes sense if you think people can rest in a merry fashion. Anything is possible in the world of carols.

And I'm another one who used to think that Good King Wenslas LAST looked out on the feast of Stephen...

I still prefer Adeste fideles to Oh Come, all ye faithful.

Anyone else thinking of Arthur in Cabin Pressure? All together now -

Ge-e-et dressed you merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,
For it is Christmas Christmas Christmas Christmas Christmas Day!

Singing songs with the nursery children recently, in preparation for a carol thing. If I find which member of staff keeps singing about "Reindeers" I'll end up in 'time out' for an hour.

One of the main differences between dd's grammar school and ds's secondary modern is that one sang Adeste Fideles and the others sang Oh Come All Ye Faithful........

Thank you kitsandkids I like to think so! I met a mum the other day who says she remembers me teaching her to knit in year 2 about 20 years ago when we still did fun stuff like that. She said it started off her knitting and crochet passion.

Probably won’t ever have someone say to me I remember you teaching me phonics!

Bertrand I and my DP both went to grammar schools, and never sang Adeste Fideles. But my cousins went to two different Catholic secondary moderns, and only ever sang the Adeste.

Haha, yes - DS1's grammar school would never sing some modern composition of a traditional carol!

After one concert a friend said "I was surprised you didn't know O Holy Night". I replied that I did, but only in French! We only ever sang Minuit, Chrétiens at school.

it's (sic) name was Ye Olde Dainty Shoppe

The "Ye" just means "the" in that context. In Middle English, "the" was often spelled "Þe" with the digraph "Þ" just meaning "th". It was later corrupted and became "ye". In other contexts, "ye" is the plural second person pronoun.

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams You're the first person I've ever seen use the underline function on MN.