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Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies / Christmas Day in the Morning

[ Roud 497 ; Ballad Index BGMG420 ; Mudcat 117211 ; trad.]

J. Collingwood Bruce, John Stokoe: Northumbrian Minstrelsy

Jean Ritchie sang Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies in 1959 on her Tradition album Carols of All Seaons. She noted:

Those who like English folk songs will recognize the tune of this children’s game-song as that of Greensleeves speeded up to dance tempo. Actually, the original use of the Greensleeves tune was for morris dancing, and still is today. The composer of the love-lyrics (Henry VIII, presumably) slowed the tempo down to suit his tender words. My children’s game-song, then, is closer to the original than the better-known love song, and much more fun to sing.

Isla Cameron sang a medley of Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies, Lavender’s Blue and Bobby Shaftoe in 1964 on her, Bob Davenport and the Rakes’ album Northumbrian Minstrelsy. Reg Hall noted:

These are three well-known Northumbrian children’s songs. The tune of the first will be familiar as Greensleeves but is really a variant of Nuts in May. The second also probably of game origin has a prototype dating back to about 1672 called Diddle-Daddle or The Kind Country Lovers and in some versions it is known as The Dilly-Dilly Song. And the last is a version of a children’s choosing game My Young Man Has Gone to Sea.

Magpie Lane played the tunes Winter and Christmas Day in the Mornin’ on their 2006 album of carols, songs and tunes for the Christmas season, Knock at the Knocker, Ring at the Bell. They noted:

We now get lots of tunes from some of the excellent websites which make old manuscript collections available. Winter is from Volume III of A Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs adapted for the Fife, Violin or German Flute, Printed and Sold by I.A. Aird, Glasgow, published c.1780. Christmas Day in the Mornin’ is from Bruce & Stokoe’s Northumbrian Minstrelsy of 1882.

Lyrics

Christmas Day in the Morning in Northumbrian Minstrelsy

Dame get up and bake your pies,
Bake your pies, bake your pies;
Dame get up and bake your pies,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

Dame what makes your maidens lie,
Maidens lie, maidens lie;
Dame what makes your maidens lie,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

Dame what makes your ducks to die,
Ducks to die, ducks to die;
Dame what makes your ducks to die,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

Their wings are cut, and they cannot fly,
Cannot fly, cannot fly;
Their wings are cut, and they cannot fly,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

Jean Ritchie sings Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies

Dame get up and bake your pies,
Bake your pies, bake your pies;
Dame get up and bake your pies,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

Dame what makes your maidens lie,
Maidens lie, maidens lie;
Dame what makes your maidens lie,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

Dame what makes your ducks to die,
Ducks to die, ducks to die;
Dame what makes your ducks to die,
On Christmas Day in the morning.