Standard (EADGBE)

Once I found a stowaway

 Upon my ship on Christmas Day

I was fair, so I gave him a chance.

 “You shouldn’t be here, what’s your tale?

 I ought to throw you to the whale.”

He just smiled and said, “Come here, let’s dance.”

Chorus

 He said, “Borrow or steal, I’ll find a way

 To be with my lover upon Christmas Day

 And I’ll run, and I’ll roam, I’ll cover the ground

 Next Christmas I’ll see you, I’ll be around.”

He told me ‘bout his girl back home

Waiting patient, all alone

While we danced I shed a little tear.

He closed his eyes, all out at sea

I think he danced with her, not me

I’ll just have to wait another year.

He said, “Borrow or steal, I’ll find a way

To be with my lover upon Christmas Day

And I’ll run, and I’ll roam, I’ll cover the ground

Next Christmas I’ll see you, I’ll be around.

 I think of him now and again

 I wonder how his journey ends

As I sail by on my lonesome sea.

 That stranger with the haunting face

Here, then gone without a trace.

Lying with his love, that’s where he’ll be.

Chorus

 Beg, borrow or steal, I’ll find a way

 To be with my lover upon Christmas Day

 And I’ll run, and I’ll roam, I’ll cover the ground

 Next Christmas I’ll see you, I’ll be around.

Beg, borrow or steal, I’ll find a way

To be with my lover upon Christmas Day

And I’ll run, and I’ll roam, I’ll cover the ground

Next Christmas I’ll see you, I’ll be around.