(Pick A Letter to Choose a Rhyme!)

Hot cross buns are sweet buns made with a cross on top. They're traditionally eaten on Good Friday in Britain.

 

Here's the ending of this song in the mp3:

But if you have none of these little elves,
Then you must eat them all your selves.

•  MP3 Recording of Hot Cross Buns

 

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Notes

Percy B. Green gave this variation of Hot Cross Buns in his book A History of Nursery Rhymes (1899):

One a penny, two a penny, hot-cross buns,
If your daughters do not like them give them to your sons;
But if you should have none of these pretty little elves
You cannot do much better if you eat them all yourselves.

The Real Mother Goose (1916) has this slight variation:

Hot-cross Buns!
Hot-cross Buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot-cross Buns!

Hot-cross Buns!
Hot-cross Buns!
If ye have no daughters,
Give them to your sons.

Here's another variation from The Little Mother Goose (1912), illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith:

Hot cross buns,
Hot cross buns,
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns.
If your daughters
Don't like 'em,
Give them to your sons,
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns.

Photos & Illustrations

Comments

This is often the first song kids learn on the recorder.

Thanks and Acknowledgements

The first illustration comes from The National Nursery Book and the second one is from The Baby's Bouquet, A Fresh Bunch of Rhymes and Tunes by Walter Crane (1878). The third illustration can be found in The Real Mother Goose (1916), illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright.

MP3 recording by Carol Stripling.