noel,
Noel sing we may
Because the King of all Kings
Was born this blessed day.

These tidings shepherds heard
In field watching their fold,
Were by an angel unto them
At night revealed and told.

Noel, noel, noel,
Noel sing we may
Because the King of all Kings
Was born this blessed day.

He brought unto them tidings
Of gladness and of mirth,
Which cometh to all people by
This holy infant's birth.

Noel, noel, noel,
Noel sing we may
Because the King of all Kings
Was born this blessed day.

The "blessed day" wore on. Gifts and sports filled the happy hours.
In the royal banqueting hall the Christmas dinner was royally set
and served, and King and Queen and Princes, with attendant nobles and
holiday guests, partook of the strong dishes of those old days of hearty
appetites.

"A shield of brawn with mustard, boyl'd capon, a chine of beef roasted,
a neat's tongue roasted, a pig roasted, chewets baked, goose, swan and
turkey roasted, a haunch of venison roasted, a pasty of venison, a kid
stuffed with pudding, an olive-pye, capons and dowsets, sallats and
fricases"--all these and much more, with strong beer and spiced ale to
wash the dinner down, crowned the royal board, while the great boar's
head and the Christmas pie, borne in with great parade, were placed
on the table joyously decked with holly and rosemary and bay. It was
a great ceremony--this bringing in of the boar's head. First came an
attendant, so the old record tells us,

"attyr'd in a horseman's coat with a Boares-speare in his hande; next to
him another huntsman in greene, with a bloody faulchion drawne; next to
him two pages in tafatye sarcenet, each of them with a messe of mustard;
next to whom came hee that carried the Boareshead, crosst with a greene
silk scarfe, by which hunge the empty scabbard of the faulchion which
was carried before him."

After the dinner--the boar's head having been wrestled for by some of
the royal yeomen--came the wassail or health-drinking. Then the King
said:

"And now, Baby Charles, let us hear the boon ye were to crave of us
at wassail as the guerdon for the holder of the lucky raisin in Master
Sandy's snapdragon."

And the little eleven-year-old Prince stood up before the company in all
his brave attire, glanced at his brother Prince Henry, and then facing
the King said boldly:

"I pray you, my father and my H