Jingle Bells

(reprint from 2006)

by Tina Grazier

The origin of the song Jingle Bells can be found HERE. The following is an excerpt from the report by Andrea, age 12 and Nancy, age 13:

The song was written in 1850, back when life was very simple, and everyone was happy (well almost everyone). This song, Jingle Bells, was written only 7 miles from Boston, Massachusetts, in a town called Medford. Jingle Bells was written by James Pierpont as a kind of celebration of the Salem Street sleigh races that were a popular recreation and porch-side spectator sport. Young people sang it on sleigh rides all winter long that year in the Medford area.

In December 1857, Pierpont’s brother asked if he knew of a pleasant winter song the Sunday school children could sing at church social they were planning. James did, in fact, have it stored away in an attic trunk. He dusted off the only copy of the song that he wrote years earlier in Medford and gave it to his brother.

The students loved the song. It was a big hit of the Christmas social a few weeks later. Pierpont made a copyright on the Jingle Bells song because so many people were interested and were talking about it. Two years later the song was published, and “Jingle Bells” was a big hit. Victor Herbert once remarked, “Of all the songs by the other composers I have heard, there is only one I wish I had composed myself”. When asked the name of the song he replied, “Why, ‘Jingle Bells,’ of course,” a bit surprised anyone would have to ask, “It is a jolly tune”.

I also discovered a verse I’ve never heard HERE:

A day or two ago, the story I must tell
I went out on the snow and on my back I fell;
A gent went riding by in a one-horse open sleigh,
He laughed as there I sprawling lie,
But quickly drove away

Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle all the way!
Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh.