Families, friends and festivals

I've a Laddie in America

A bouncy little song with a very sad message. Children enjoy making the letter shapes (see below the lyric) with their fingers as they sing, but adults looking after small children have to be careful about singing this kind of sad lyric to anyone who … more »
Ma Maw's a Millionnaire

In addition to the verses below, singer Alastair MacDonald remembers a verse from Glasgow in the 1950s:Stots my faither off the waLike a wee cahoutchie ba'Cahoutchie' is an old word for 'rubber'. Ma maw's a millionaireBlue … more »
Ma, Ma, Will You Buy Me

This song has been made popular by the children's show The Singing Kettle.The tune is a simplified version of the pipe tune 'The Barren Rocks of Aden'.Ma, Ma, will you buy me a, buy me a, buy me aMa, Ma, will you buy me a, buy me a banana?Yes … more »
When I Was Single

This is a great song to perform. Point to the fourth finger (the 'ring finger') of your left hand when singing 'single' or 'mairried'. Comb your hair when you sing that, point to your wrist for 'havenae the time', knuckle … more »
Who's That Up The Chimney?

When musician Ewan McVicar was on a noisy tram on his way to visit a school in the Russian Urals city of Perm, in about 2001, his guide suddenly told him that the school wanted him to teach them a Scottish children's Christmas song.Ewan could not … more »
Ye Canny Shove Yer Grannie

This and Coulter's Candy are the best-known Scottish children's songs.The tune came from the USA in the 1940s as She'll be Coming Round the Mountain When She Comes.Ye canny shove yer grannie aff a busNaw ye canny shove yer grannie aff a busNaw … more »
The School Nativity Play

Gill Bowman and P6/7 from Bellyeoman Primary in Dunfermline wrote this song.Gill and the class remembered and thought about things that had gone wrong at school nativity plays. Then Gill and the class worked together to write the song. Gill’s work … more »
Today Is Hogmanay

Most songs that Scottish children sing are quite short and many of them are funny.This song is at least 80 years old. Ewan McVicar's mother learned the first two verses in the playground in Plean school, near Stirling, when she was 8 years old.When … more »
Ae Fond Kiss

One of Robert Burns’s finest love songs. This lyric was written for ‘Clarinda’, Mrs Agnes (Nancy) McLehose, whom Burns wooed and promised to marry when her dissolute and brutal estranged husband died. Burns signed himself ‘Sylvander’ … more »
Dumbarton's Drums

A text of this song was printed in 1724 and it was given with a tune in 1733. But not this tune!The Beers Family of Fox Hollow, New York, made the song popular in this form in the 1960s. The song has been sung in their family for many years.The name … more »
What Can a Young Lassie

The lament of a young woman forced by her mother to marry an older man for money, written by Robert Burns.Click here to read more Robert Burns poetry on the Scottish Poetry library site. What can a young lassie, what shall a young lassieWhat … more »
Auld Lang Syne

The best known Scottish song, sung all around the world at Hogmanay. Robert Burns often amended and improved old songs which he collected for publication, and ‘Auld Lang Syne’ is an example of this. Although the song is always credited … more »