Lyrics
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 in the choir.
The holly bears a blossom,
As white as lily flower,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ,
To be our sweet Savior.
The holly bears a berry,
As red as any blood,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ,
To do us sinners good.
The holly bears a prickle,
As sharp as any thorn,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ,
On Christmas Day in the morn.
The holly bears a bark,
As bitter as any gall,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ,
For to redeem us all.
Public domain hymn text. Traditional English carol, author unknown.
The Story Behind the Hymn
'The Holly and the Ivy' is a traditional English carol whose text was first collected in print in the early nineteenth century, though its use of holly and ivy as seasonal symbols draws on a much older tradition of English winter plant lore predating any specifically Christian meaning attached to it.
Holly and ivy had both been used as midwinter decoration in England for centuries, including in pre-Christian and early medieval customs, and the carol reflects a common historical pattern in which existing folk symbols were given new, explicitly Christian meaning rather than being discarded.
Despite its title naming both plants, the carol quickly sets ivy aside, declaring that 'of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly bears the crown,' and then devotes nearly all its remaining verses entirely to holly, using its physical features one by one as small, recurring pictures of Christ.
Its second verse compares holly's white blossom to Mary bearing 'sweet Jesus Christ,' while a later verse compares holly's red berry to His blood, letting a single, ordinary winter plant carry both the carol's Nativity theme and, quietly, a foreshadowing of the crucifixion within the same song.
That structure, using one plant's changing features across the seasons to hold together both birth and death within a single carol, is somewhat unusual among Christmas carols, most of which focus narrowly on the Nativity scene without extending forward into the Passion.
Its refrain, unusually, does not mention Christ, Mary, or any explicitly religious image at all, instead simply describing the natural details of an English winter, sunrise, running deer, church music, treating ordinary seasonal beauty as its own form of quiet celebration alongside the carol's more doctrinal verses.
The carol's tune and full text as commonly sung today were substantially shaped by folk song collector Cecil Sharp's early twentieth-century transcription of a version sung by a woman in Gloucestershire, helping preserve and standardize a carol that might otherwise have varied considerably between regions and singers.
