The Story Behind "Over the River and Through the Wood"

“Over the River and Through the Wood” was originally published in 1844 as a poem written by Lydia Maria Child. The poem was published in Child’s book of poems Flowers for Children, Volume 2, and was originally titled “The New-England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day.” In time, Child’s poem was set to music by an unknown composer, and over the years many children have grown up singing the song in school or community holiday programs.

Traditionally “Over the River and Through the Wood” is sung as a Thanksgiving song, in which the original lyrics say, “Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!” rather than “Hurrah for Christmas Day!” Another lyrical change was that the original poem read “Grandfather’s house” rather than “Grandmother’s house.” The original poem also contained 12 verses.

In a behind the scenes video about the Choir’s new Hallelujah! album, which features “Over the River and Through the Wood,” associate director Ryan Murphy discussed his new arrangement of the song. He explained, “We did what’s called “asymmetrical meter” in it, which makes it feel like it’s a little bit off-kilter. … It was a lot of fun to do the arrangement.”

Choir director Mack Wilberg added, “One of the reasons that I thought that this might make a good selection for this concert is that the piece that followed it, which is by Prokofiev, ‘The Troika,’ there’s sort of a similarity in riding a sleigh and going through the woods.” And then he corrected himself with a laugh, continuing, “Wood—I always thought it was ‘Over the River and Through the Woods.’ I think everybody did but, I remember when I saw Ryan’s arrangement I said, ‘You’ve left the ‘s’ off of woods and he said, ‘No, this is correct.’” “I wanted to be true to the original in that respect,” added Murphy. (This conversation takes place starting at 11:29 in the video below.)