Wind the Bobbin Up

"Wind the Bobbin Up" is a Dutch children's nursery rhyme and singing game. The song has since been translated to English and introduced to the United Kingdom and abroad.

Lyrics

Among modern lyrics is:

Origins

Iona and Peter Opie traced this rhyme back to Netherlands in the 1890s. When they were collecting games in the 1960s and 1970s the version they encountered was:

The game

In the 1970s the game involved two players winding fists around each other. At "Pull, Pull" they pushed their fists away from each other and when "Tug, Tug" was reached they pulled their elbows back. It has now become a much more sedate action game, often with small children carrying out the actions in the lyrics.