“Jingle Bells” — An Iconic Christmas Carol — Or Is It?
When it comes to Christmas songs, “Jingle Bells” has firmly entrenched itself as a holiday staple, complete with carolers, eggnog, and snow-dappled nostalgia. What if we told you that this Yuletide anthem wasn’t written for Christmas? Its origins are packed with about as many twists, turns, and surprises as there are possible ways Santa can arrange the reindeer that pull his sleigh.
Grab your bells and get your voice in tune as we take a sleigh ride through history to uncover the twisty tale of James Lord Pierpont, the man behind the Christmas song that doesn’t say a word about Christmas.
A Composer’s Journey From Wall Street to Sleigh Bells
Meet the composer in question: James Lord Pierpont. He was born in 1822 and had a knack for music and a flair for drama.
If the Pierpont name seems familiar to you, that might be because his older sister Juliet married Junius Spencer Morgan, and their son John Pierpont (“J.P.”) Morgan became one of the most powerful financiers of the era.
Although Morgan devoted himself to building financial empires, Uncle James was busy composing the tune that would make sleigh rides sound magical.
Not Much of a Family Man
For a man who wrote an iconic song about taking times of family bonding through sleigh rides, he didn’t exactly thrive in demonstrating his own family skills.
Pierpont’s personal life wasn’t quite the warm and fuzzy stuff of Christmas cards. He was the son of a staunchly abolitionist Unitarian minister, but young James preferred adventure to family ties. At 14, he ran away from boarding school to join a whaling ship crew, spending nearly a decade at sea. During the California Gold Rush, he left his wife and children in Massachusetts to chase dreams of fortune in the West. When he returned penniless, he promptly took off again—this time to Savannah, Georgia, where he became a church organist. After his first wife died in 1856, he married the daughter of Savannah’s mayor and left his children from his first marriage in the care of their grandfather.
Feeling any of the Christmas spirit yet?
Rebel Without a Claus
Pierpont’s rebellious streak didn’t stop at his family. Although his father and brother were vocal abolitionists and fierce opponents of slavery, Pierpont threw his lot in with the Confederacy.
His brother’s abolitionist sermons were far from popular in the antebellum South. He was forced to flee Savannah in 1859. James, however, stayed behind and enlisted in the Confederate Army.
During this time he penned several anthems for the South, including “Strike for the South” and “Our Battle Flag!”
We suppose it goes without saying that “Jingle Bells” is about as noncontroversial of any of the tunes in his repertoire.
“Jingle Bells” Wasn’t Always “Jingle Bells”
When the song we know and love today was first published in 1857, it carried the title “One Horse Open Sleigh.” It wasn’t until its reissue two years later that it gained the familiar name “Jingle Bells.” By then, the catchy tune had already begun its slow but steady march toward holiday immortality.
Here are the original lyrics to “One Horse Open Sleigh”:
Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh
Over the fields we go
Laughing all the way.
Bells on bob-tail ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight.
chorus:
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh, O
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.
A day or two ago
I thought I’d take a ride
And soon Miss Fanny Bright
Was seated by my side;
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot,
We got into a drifted bank
And there we got upsot.
chorus:
Jingle bells, jingle bells…
A day or two ago
The story I must tell
I went out on the snow
And on my back I fell;
A gent was riding by
In a one-horse open sleigh
He laughed as there I sprawling lie
But quickly drove away.
chorus:
Jingle bells, jingle bells…
Now the ground is white,
Go it while you’re young,
Take the girls tonight
And sing this sleighing song.
Just get a bob-tailed bay,
Two-forty for his speed,
Then hitch him to an open sleigh
And crack! You’ll take the lead.
chorus:
Jingle bells, jingle bells…
A Song About Snow Written in the South?
Who can lay claim to being the birthplace of “Jingle Bells”? That depends on who you ask. A plaque in Medford, Massachusetts, asserts that Pierpont wrote the song in 1850 at Simpson Tavern, inspired by local sleigh races. Skeptics, however, point out that Pierpont was likely still in California at the time. Meanwhile, Savannah, Georgia, boasts its own historical marker near the Unitarian church where Pierpont served as music director in 1857.
Regardless of where the song was written, its imagery of snow and sleigh rides points unmistakably to Pierpont’s memories of New England winters. It was unlikely to have been inspired by looking out the window at the snowless surroundings of the Deep South.
Not Exactly a Christmas Song
One of the most surprising facts about this timeless Christmas song is that it isn’t a Christmas song.
“Jingle Bells” wasn’t written for Christmas at all. In fact, it doesn’t mention Christmas or any holiday. Some accounts suggest the song was first performed at a Thanksgiving service, but its lyrics about picking up girls, snow racing, and high-speed crashes don’t scream “church hymn.”
The final verse’s advice to “go it while you’re young” is less “Silent Night” and more like Rod Stewart’s “Forever Young.”
Sleigh Bells Meet Cringeworthiness
The song’s early performances come with an uncomfortable and cringeworthy historical footnote. “One Horse Open Sleigh” was dedicated to John Ordway, a composer and leader of a blackface minstrel troupe. Evidence suggests that many of Pierpont’s songs, including “Jingle Bells,” were performed in minstrel shows, a practice that underscores the complex and troubling legacy of 19th-century entertainment.
Jingle Bells in Space
On a much lighter note, “Jingle Bells” achieved a celestial milestone in 1965. Astronauts aboard Gemini 6 performed the song in space using a harmonica and sleigh bells they had smuggled aboard. It was the first song ever broadcast from space, proving that “Jingle Bells” truly goes where no sleigh has gone before.
James Lord Pierpont may not have envisioned his tune as a Christmas classic, but his snowbound memories and rebellious spirit created a song that jingles through the ages. Whether it’s performed by carolers, astronauts, or mischievous kids drag-racing in the snow, “Jingle Bells” remains the quintessential winter anthem—Christmas or not.
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