"The Friendly Beasts" is a traditional Christmas song about the gifts that a donkey, a cow, a sheep, a camel, and a dove gave to Jesus at the Nativity. The song seems to have originated in 12th-century France, set to the melody of the Latin song Orientis Partibus.[1] The current English words were written by Robert Davis (1881-1950) in the 1920s.[2] Burl Ives included the song on his 1952 album Christmas Day in the Morning. Since then, it has been recorded by many other artists, including Harry Belafonte, Johnny Cash, Risë Stevens, Danny Taddei, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Sufjan Stevens.[3] Brian Stokes Mitchell recently sang this song with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, complete with the donkey, cow, and sheep "voices". Garth Brooks recorded it on his platinum Beyond the Season in 1992.
The song is also known as "The Song of the Ass," The Donkey Carol," "The Animal Carol" and "The Gift of the Animals."[2] Belafonte and Cash use the title "The Gifts They Gave."