I’m not sure how someone could listen to Christmas music and not hear the figgy pudding verse. Maybe it was some Mondegreen situation and you thought it said something else.
Turns out nobody knows the age of the carol. It doesn’t appear written down until 1935 but called “traditional” then. So either it was very old or some faked it well, because using “figgy pudding” would signal age to all Britons. Fig pudding, or raisin or plum or suchlike, was what the poor made to give themselves a sweet dessert back in the days when the price of sugar made it a luxury. That was the same era when “Visions of sugar plums danced in their heads” meant that children might look forward all year to Christmas because it was the one time they got to eat sugar candy.
I agree with the others that figgy pudding was always the second verse. I associate it only with the song and wouldn’t know it otherwise.
I mean the OP. I have never heard this song without the figgy pudding line. I wonder what his alternate reality version says on the line. He never says.
Figgy pudding is a solid, not something that needs to be in a container.
In England pudding basically means “dessert course”.
Us USAians are maybe thinking of what we call pudding but I believe the English call all dessert type dealies “pudding”. Me, I always say ‘some pudding’ but in my head I’m thinking of a bowl of gelatinous stuff. But it probably was “a pudding” originally-- meaning a dessert with figs in it.
Also, if you know what box pudding is and what the inside of a Fig Newton is, it isn’t that big of a leap to imagine inside-of-a-Fig-Newton flavored box pudding. In fact, that sounds like it would be delicious. Can you find fig pudding?
It has to be cooked in something, even if it’s wrapped in cheesecloth. The Christmas puddings I’ve bought at the supermarket all came in containers (bowls) that could be boiled/steamed (as is done traditionally) or microwaved.
If you don’t count black pudding. Or white pudding. Or Yorkshire pudding. Or all the English puddings that aren’t dessert.
I’m aware of the tradition of carollers getting food and drink to get rid of them and certainly the wording make lots of sense in that context, I’m not disputing that. I’m sure these are the original lyrics as well.
My question was more along the lines of the variation of the lyrics and whether that was a N. American change when it came here.
I grew up in in Southern Ontario, (near Niagara Falls) and went to a catholic school there - never once did we sing about figgy puddin’s. These are roughly the lyrics we sang.
Nary a fig based cheesecloth wrapped dessert to be found there.
The way our friends sang it (and it may be just their version) it reminded me a lot of crowd versions where they insert words into Sweet Caroline or Mony Mony (I’m sure you can Youtube those).
This for me too. I never got any figgy pudding for singing it, but on occasion I got fig newtons, so that was ok.
I’m 39 and always knew the “figgy pudding” line.
Is there an alternative line to this?
“We know that Santa’s coming?”
We just swapped variations that we’ve never heard before.
Well, if there’s a version that’s been Americanised and kiddyfied, my money’s on the one with “Santa” in it.
I am a Christmas music afficionado, and I have NEVER heard the “We all know that Santa’s coming” version of that song. Ever.
FTR, here are Genius Kitchen’s recipe for figgy pudding, the one from allrecipes!, the Food Network’s recipe, and the recipe from the BBC’s Goodfood website.
Now I want some figgy pudding.
Brits can use “pudding” to mean “dessert course” (otherwise, the famous Roger Waters line makes no sense), OR to mean “flabby (but often quite solid) baggy thing cooked from little bits of stuff (sweet or savory).”
It’s helpful to know the word comes from French “boudin,” which is from Latin “botellus,” both basically meaning “sausage.”
A friend of mine was in an amateur* chorus and this was a staple in their annual Christmas performance. Verse 1 would be all sweet and light but they’d ramp up the vehemence with the succeeding verses until, as you said, v4 was downright demanding. “…so bring some out here!” Got a laugh every time.
*Amateur as in not paid, not so-so skilled. They were one of the best choruses in the Bay Area
^ The version we knew as kids was even more demanding: “…so bring it right here!”
Aw shucks, it’s cake. I was really looking forward to some fig flavored Jello pudding.