# Christmas Mondegreens
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 11, 2007, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607 "2007-12-11T14:00:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/1 "2007-12-11T14:00:05Z")
From Snopes this morning:
> **[Christmas Carol Mondegreens](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-red-and-the-mondegreen/)**
>
> Misheard lyrics to Christmas songs are immortalized as 'mondegreens.'
I never heard or thought of most of these, although “Round John Virgin” from “Silent Night” was used as the name of a character in the mondegreen-fiiled animated special “Olive the Other Reindeer”, and MilliCal and I use “Later on we’ll perspire” from “Winter Wonderland” as an inside joke.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/2 "2007-12-11T14:16:01Z")
I always thought Ding Dong Merrily on High was a bunch of nonsense syllables, but a quick google reveals the actual [lyrics](http://www.carols.org.uk/ding_dong_merrily_on_high.htm)
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### Author:  [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/3 "2007-12-11T14:23:58Z")
Many of these mondegreens come from the book _Deck the Halls with Buddy Holly._ However, it doesn’t have some of my favorites from that book, such as “Santa baby, Jeff’s disabled under the tree” or “Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, you’ll go drown in Listerine.”
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### Author:  [@Olive\_The\_Other\_Reindeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olive_The_Other_Reindeer)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/4 "2007-12-11T15:20:18Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
I never heard or thought of most of these, although “Round John Virgin” from “Silent Night” was used as the name of a character in the mondegreen-fiiled animated special “Olive the Other Reindeer”, and MilliCal and I use “Later on we’ll perspire” from “Winter Wonderland” as an inside joke.
[/QUOTE]
Did someone call???
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/5 "2007-12-11T16:10:13Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
… MilliCal and I use “Later on we’ll perspire” from “Winter Wonderland” as an inside joke.
[/QUOTE]
:smack:
Wow, do I feel sheepish…but it makes sense! Fire = perspire! Darn it. Ignorance Fought.
:o :o :o :o :o :o
:o :o :o :o :o :o \<—caroling smilies
:o :o :o :o :o :o
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### Author:  [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/6 "2007-12-11T16:40:38Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot]
:smack:
Wow, do I feel sheepish…but it makes sense! Fire = perspire! Darn it. Ignorance Fought.
[/QUOTE]
😕 Isn’t the original line: “Later on, we’ll conspire”?
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/7 "2007-12-11T16:57:27Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Isn’t the original line: “Later on, we’ll conspire”?
I hope so! Otherwise our Inside Joke is just a Quotation, and nobody wants that.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/8 "2007-12-11T17:03:19Z")
Why hasn’t it been marked True, False, or Undetermined yet? I thought Barb typically didn’t post something until after researching it.
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### Author:  [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/9 "2007-12-11T17:29:26Z")
This page is two years old, and I don’t think it counts as an UL per se- it’s just for fun. As far as research goes, two books are credited.
And “conspire” is the correct word. **WhyNot** is just saying it’s logical for fire to make one sweat (perspire).
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### Author:  [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/10 "2007-12-11T18:11:38Z")
[QUOTE=mobo85]
This page is two years old, and I don’t think it counts as an UL per se- it’s just for fun. As far as research goes, two books are credited.
And “conspire” is the correct word. **WhyNot** is just saying it’s logical for fire to make one sweat (perspire).
[/QUOTE]
Or other activities by the fire can also make one sweat…
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### Author:  [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/11 "2007-12-11T18:43:09Z")
Ah. :smack:
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/12 "2007-12-11T19:32:46Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
I never heard or thought of most of these, although “Round John Virgin” from “Silent Night…”
[/QUOTE]
When my mom was a little girl, her next door neighbor was name John Burgen. She always wondered why he was in a Christmas carole.
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/13 "2007-12-11T19:34:39Z")
[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee]
Ah. :smack:
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I was saying that their “inside joke” wasn’t exclusively theirs, 'cause I thought it was “perspire” for all these years, as well. Heck, I think I even sang it that way in choir!
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/14 "2007-12-11T20:38:40Z")
[QUOTE=Miller]
When my mom was a little girl, her next door neighbor was name John Burgen. She always wondered why he was in a Christmas carole.
[/QUOTE]
I always thought St. Mary must have been really fat. “Round yon virgin . . .”
I also thought there was a country called Orientar.
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### Author:  [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/15 "2007-12-11T21:04:25Z")
I can see “‘hearts’ of gold” from “it came upon a midnight clear.”
But many of the rest seem like someone trying and failing to be funny.
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/16 "2007-12-11T21:39:08Z")
When I hear Bon Jovi’s rendition of “I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” I could swear he’s singing “…then I saw mommy _tinkle on_ Santa Claus”(as opposed to tickling). Obviously I know the real words but I think my way is more funner.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/17 "2007-12-11T22:22:39Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
I also thought there was a country called Orientar.
[/QUOTE]
I thought the three kings lived in a castle called Orien Tower.
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### Author:  [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2007, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/18 "2007-12-12T10:06:17Z")
The second verse of “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” has a line that I always thought was “And ever o’er its _battle_ sounds / The blessed angels sing”. Always, that is, until I noticed on the sheet music I have for it that it is “And ever o’er its _Babel_ sounds”.
I’ll admit it’s a Mondegreen, but I still insist that my version makes more sense, darnit. 😛
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### Author:  [@bathsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bathsheba)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2007, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/19 "2007-12-12T10:25:29Z")
Go dress ye merry, gentlemen
You’ve nothing on this day
Remember not to save your
Wash for doing Christmas day
And save us all from visions sour
When pants have gone astray
Go find things that cover a groin
Cover a groin
Go find things that cover a groin
(not mine, probably not strictly a mondegreen either)
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2007, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-mondegreens/429607/20 "2007-12-12T14:28:29Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
I always thought St. Mary must have been really fat. “Round yon virgin . . .”
[/quote]
Not fat. Pregnant. And young.
I had a friend who really thought that.
> [@](#):
>
> I also thought there was a country called Orientar.
Me too!
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