Alternate titles are "In Praise Of Christmas", "The Praise Of Christmas" and "All Hail To The Days". The words are anonymous, probably before ca. 1625 from broadside sources. It is sometimes erroneously attributed to Tom D'Urfey (1653-1723).
This carol is contained in both the Samuel Pepys Collection and the Roxburghe Collection (the same Broadside is found in both collections). It is included in Edward Rimbault's The Little Book of Songs and Ballads as "The Praise of Christmas". Rimbault's notes state:
This excellent old Song is corrected from a black-letter copy, "Printed at London, by H[enry] G[osson]," in the Pepysian Collection. Another copy (of the First Part only) is in D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy. The black-letter copy is directed to be sung "to the tune of 'When Phoebus did Rest'."
It is also found in Playford's Dancing Master, 1650. In A. H. Bullen's A Christmas Garland, he notes that it is also found in an early 17th century Broadside: "All Hail to the Days", ca. 1625. It appears in William Chappell's The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time.
Many versions contain only verses 1, 3, 7, 11, 12, or a combination thereof. Many of the Cavalier songs against the Rump Parliament were sung to this tune.
The reference in verse 11 to 'Christmas-tide" generally refers to the Twelve Days of Christmas following Christmas Day through the feast of Epiphany, January 6; in some locations, the holiday may extend to Candlemas, February 2.