The Sussex Carol is named after the region where it was collected and documented by Ralph Vaughan Williams. His arrangement of the carol was published as part of his Eight Traditional English Carols of 1919, and again in the Oxford Book of Carols of 1924. Although the text has been found with many other tunes, the one collected by Vaughan Williams has become the standard. Further history of the simple 6/8-time song is unknown.

The text comes from the Smale Garland of Pious and Godly Songs, a book written by an Irish Franciscan bishop named Luke Wadding and published in Ghent in 1684. Greatly revised editions of the book were published in London in 1728 and 1731, introducing the contents into circulation among English Protestants. The four verses tell how all Christians rejoice at the coming of their Redeemer and their salvation.

The song does not have a standard refrain. Instead, each verse is comprised of two couplets. The first couplet is repeated, usually performed in unison voices. The second couplet is sung once in harmony (typically three or four voices) and has an unusual three-measure phrasing, rather than the standard two- or four-bar phrasing found in most Western music.

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