Cecil Sharp collected the popular version of “The Holly and the Ivy” in 1909.
Sharp, a leading English folk-song collector, heard the version from Mary Clayton in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, on 13 January 1909. His transcription helped establish the words and melody now familiar to many Christmas singers, and he published them in English Folk-Carols in 1911.
The carol is older than Sharp’s collection. Its title and parts of its text are documented in early-19th-century sources, while complete words appeared in print by 1849. Traditional singers used several different melodies and lyric variants before Sharp’s version became standard.
The imagery connects holly with Christ through its white blossoms, red berries, prickles and bitter bark, while the refrain celebrates the rising sun, running deer and singing choir. Sharp collected the popular form; he did not originate the carol.