This is a rhyme I can never remember all the words to. My version always seems to get mixed up somewhere in the middle. 3yo doesn’t seem to notice – yet!  

Oranges and Lemons words

“Oranges and lemons”, says the bell of St. Clement’s
“You owe me five farthings”, says the bell of St. Martin’s
“When will you pay me?” says the bell of Old Bailey
“When I grow rich”, says the bell of Shoreditch
“When will that be?” says the bell of Stepney
“I do not know,” says the great bell of Bow
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!

When I was little, I remember  this was an exciting song at birthday parties due to the game that went along with it. You just didn’t want to be the ‘last man’.

The game goes like this:

Players file, in pairs, through an arch made by two of the players (made by having the players face each other, raise their arms over their head, and clasp their partners’ hands). The challenge comes during the final lines:

Here comes a candle to light you to bed.
Here comes a chopper to chop off your head.
(Chip chop, chip chop, the last man’s dead.)

On the last word, the children forming the arch drop their arms to catch the pair of children currently passing through, who are then “out” and must form another arch next to the existing one. In this way, the series of arches becomes a steadily lengthening tunnel through which each set of two players have to run faster and faster to escape in time.

Alternate versions of the game include: children caught “out” by the last rhyme may stand behind one of the children forming the original arch, instead of forming additional arches; and, children forming “arches” may bring their hands down for each word of the last line, while the children passing through the arches run as fast as they can to avoid being caught on the last word.*

Oranges and lemons – the song!

*www.wikipedia.org

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