Good King Wenceslas

Gonzo sings the song in A Muppet Family Christmas.
Music by:	from Piae Cantiones
Lyrics by:	John Mason Neale

Baljeet and Buford sing the song in "A Phineas and Ferb Family Christmas".

Good King Wenceslas

"Good King Wenceslas" is a traditional Christmas carol. It tells a story about a historical figure, St. Wenceslas I, Duke of Bohemia (907-935). In it, he and his servant bring food and wood to a peasant on St. Stephen's Day, which is December 26th. The servant grows cold, but his master is so saintly that he leaves heat in the ground where he passes, leading to the concluding moral that "Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourself find blessing."

Lyrics

Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight gathering winter fuel

Hither page and stand by me if thou know'st it telling
Yonder peasant who is he where and what his dwelling
Sire he lives a good league hence underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence by St. Agnes' fountain

Bring me flesh and bring me wine bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I will see him dine when we bear him thither
Page and monarch forth they went forth they went together
Through the rude wind's wild lament and the bitter weather

Sire the night is darker now and the wind blow stronger
Fails my heart I know not how I can go no longer
Mark my footsteps my good page tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood less coldly

In his master's steps he trod where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod which the Saint had printed
Therefore Christian men be sure wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing

Appearances in Christmas productions

• Thunderbirds: "Give or Take a Million" (1966)
• John Denver's Rocky Mountain Christmas (1975)
• A Muppet Family Christmas (1987)
• An Old-Fashioned Christmas Sing-Along (1990)
• French Fields: "Noël, Noël" (1990)
• Disney's Christmas Fantasy on Ice (1992)
• Alpha's Magical Christmas (1994)
• The Christmas Light (1995) - with "Jingle Bells" in 'Lively Orchestra'
• Good King Wenceslas (1996)
• Christmas at the Fun Song Factory (1996)
• My Christmas Play Rhymes and Songs (1997)
• Bug Alert!: "Christmas" (2000)
• Love Actually (2003)
• Noel (2004)
• The Polar Express (2004)
• Christmas with the Kranks (2004)
• Postman Pat: "Pat's Special Delivery: The Flying Christmas Stocking" (2008)
• Miranda: "The Perfect Christmas" (2010) - with lyrics changed by Miranda's mother, Penny (Patricia Hodge) and father, Charles (Tom Conti).
• Phineas and Ferb: "A Phineas and Ferb Family Christmas" (2011)
• The Middle: "A Christmas Gift" (2011)
• The Big Bang Theory: "The Santa Simulation" (2012)
• A Madea Christmas (2013)
• The Simpsons: "White Christmas Blues" (2013)
• The Simpsons: "I Won't Be Home for Christmas" (2014)
• Back to Christmas (2014)
• A Dogwalker's Christmas Tale (2015)
• MST3K: "The Christmas That Almost Wasn't" (2017)
• The Last Tycoon: "A Brady-American Christmas" (2017)
• Daddy's Home 2 (2017)
• The Simpsons: "'Tis the 30th Season" (2018)
• The Simpsons: "Bobby, It's Cold Outside" (2019)
• Ivy & Mistletoe (2020)
• My Dad's Christmas Date (2020)
• The Simpsons: "Manger Things" (2021)
• My Family Christmas Tree (2021)

In Christmas specials and albums

• The first verse of the song is sung by Gonzo, backed by the casts of The Muppet Show and Sesame Street during the carol medley in A Muppet Family Christmas.
• Bean Bunny sings the song in The Muppet Christmas Carol only to have a Christmas wreath thrown at him by an irate Ebenezer Scrooge. An instrumental version appears on the film's soundtrack as one of the handful of traditional Christmas carols musically incorporated and alluded to throughout the film's score.
• Pokémon Christmas Bash features a version themed to the franchise as part of its Caroling medley.
• In Elmo's Christmas Countdown, Oscar the Grouch comments that Christmas cheer is a pain "in the King Wenceslas".
• Phineas and Ferb Holiday Favorites features a version sung by Baljeet Tjinder and Buford Van Stomm. Buford changes the lyrics and then gets into an argument with Baljeet. When Baljeet questions Buford's knowledge of the song, Buford reveals that he knows all about its origins and changed the lyrics because he likes his version better as it was about him. This version was later used in "A Phineas and Ferb Family Christmas".