Learn how to play We Wish You a Merry Christmas with this easy ukulele tutorial with on-screen lyrics, chords and tab. Considering that the song has seven chords, you can follow a simple all-down strum pattern while singing. On the other hand, you can learn to fingerpick the melody. Or you can do both!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas is one of the songs in our best-selling and award-winning book 21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christmas. So don’t forget to visit here to get your copy of the book!

WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS UKULELE TUTORIAL

First of all, we’ll need seven chords for We Wish You a Merry Christmas: C, F, G7, Am, D7, E7 and G. And Jenny shows these chords in the video. Secondly, she plays a sing and strum version following an easy all-down strum pattern. In addition, the video features a split-screen which has Jenny fingerpicking the melody on the left side and continuing with the all-down strum on the right side.

Although We Wish You a Merry Christmas is a pretty simple holiday song, it carries a meaningful message and a festive vibe. Thus, people commonly include the song in Christmas carols and musicals as well as community celebrations or family get-togethers during the holidays.

Here’s another video tutorial featuring both Jenny and Rebecca.

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SONG HISTORY

Historians do not have a clear account of the origin and author of this jolly Christmas carol. They are not able to find the song in collections and anthologies of carols and songs. But they have determined the song is from the West Country in England. One characteristic feature of the song is about keenly requesting for “figgy pudding” that the lyrics include “we won’t go until we get some.” Accordingly, this is based on English tradition wherein carolers visit homes of wealthy people on Christmas Eve and they are given treats such as pudding.

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Moreover, another distinctive feature of the song is the addition of the greeting “and a Happy New Year”. Very few traditional English Christmas carols included this line. Actually, January 1 was not considered the beginning of the new year in England until 1752. But the presence of this line referring to New Year makes the song a great addition to Christmas carols list as it encompasses two holiday celebrations.

Finally, we hope you liked our We Wish You a Merry Christmas ukulele tutorial. And here’s to a wonderful start of 2019 to all of you!