Hot Cross Buns!
Version 1
Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!
Give them to your daughters.
Give them to your sons.
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!
(Mother Goose Club Version)
Version 2
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.
Source: Smith, The Little Mother Goose (1912)
Version 3
Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
Pray give them to your sons;
But if you have none of these little elves,
Then you must eat them all yourselves.
Source: Wier, Songs the Children Love to Sing (1916)
Historical Background
Hot cross buns are semi-sweet rolls containing spices, raisins, and citron, decorated with a cross-shaped glaze. During the nineteenth century, street peddlers selling the buns would cry out the now popular “Hot Cross Buns” rhyme. The rhyme was also traditionally sung by children while eating hot cross buns for breakfast on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The song often accompanies a game in which players’ hands are placed one on top of the other in a stack. The lowest hand is removed and placed on the top, and the game continues on.
