IN THE village of Low Catton where I was born and brought up, my brother and I also went Lucky Birding along with other village children (Letters, December 26). It was a race to see who could be first out! This was in the late 1940s, early 1950s.

On Christmas morning the rhyme that we shouted was exactly the same as quoted by John Boddy. But we also went out on New Year’s morning with this one: “Happy New Year, Happy New Year, all good luck and all good cheer, a pocket full of money and a cellar full of beer and a big fat pig to last all year. Please will you give us a New Year’s Box.”

Certain people would only give to a boy on one day and a girl on the other, but neither my brother nor I can remember which way round.

A I Wyatt, Pocklington.