We’ll Dress the House

1)

We’ll dress the house with holly bright and sprigs of mistletoe

We’ll trim the Christmas tree tonight and set the lights aglow

We’ll wrap our gifts with ribbons gay and give them out on Christmas Day

By everything we do and say, our gladness we will show

2)

We’ll dress the table daintily, our finest treasures use

That all a-sparkle it may be and bright with lovely hews

Then for the feasting we’ll prepare a kitchen full of wondrous fare

That each from all the dishes rare, his fav’rite one may choose

3)

And ye who would the Christ child greet, your heart also adorn

That it may be a dwelling meet for Him who now is born

Let all unlovely things give place to souls bedecked with heavenly grace,

That ye may view His holy face with joy on Christmas morn

This is the final Alfred Burt carol that I perform regularly. I like how it sings about the decorating, the entertaining, and wraps them all into the theme of greeting the Christ-child.  It is so easy to separate them, hyping the former, forgetting the latter, or dissing the former to honor the latter.  But to see the first as a way to honor the second, that is where it becomes life.