God rest ye merry, gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay.
Remember Christ our Saviour
Was born upon this day.
To save us all from Satan’ s power,
When we were gone astray.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy.
O tidings of comfort and joy.

This is a beautiful old English carol that is not much sung nowadays. There seem to be two reasons for that. One is that many times the comma between merry and gentlemen is omitted, leading some folks to think this carol is about drunken gentlemen. It is not. Merry means joyful and, with the comma where it should be, connects to rest, not gentlemen. Joyful rest has the same meaning as comfort and joy in the chorus.

The other reason is that the first two lines are in the subjunctive mood, which is not taught anymore, hardly even mentioned in grammar books. Yet it still does exist in English. The subjunctive mood is used to express a wish, thus all greetings are in the subjunctive mood, and almost all sentences that begin with let or may.

Merry Christmas to all who read this. May God grant you comfort and joy on this day. (Btw, “Merry Christmas” and “May God grant you . . .” are both subjunctive mood.)