✦ A Nursery Rhyme ✦

Hot Cross Buns

A traditional Mother Goose nursery rhyme

One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns! A rhyme that began as the call of street sellers in old London.

Watch the Read-Aloud Read the Rhyme

Read aloud by Storyland Classics  ✦  33 seconds  ✦  Watch on YouTube

✦ The Rhyme ✦

Hot Cross Buns

Traditional English nursery rhyme. Public domain.

Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns! One a penny, two a penny, Hot cross buns!

If you have no daughters, Give them to your sons; One a penny, two a penny, Hot cross buns!

✦ About the Rhyme ✦

A Song from the Streets

“Hot Cross Buns” began as a street cry, the song London bakers and sellers called out to sell spiced buns marked with a cross, traditionally eaten at Easter time.

Today it is often one of the first songs children learn to play on the recorder or piano, because it uses only three notes.

✦ Talk About It ✦

Questions to Share

  • How much do the buns cost?
  • What is on top of a hot cross bun?
  • If you were selling something, what would you sing to get people to buy it?

✦ Keep Reading ✦

More Nursery Rhymes