NOVEMBER 28, 2024

Today’s weather: Mostly cloudy with early rain. HIGH 54, LOW 37

THE LEDE

The Christmas Song That Wasn’t Meant to be a Christmas Song

If people had known what was to come, they might have left Jingle Bells alone. 

Instead, a tune originally written for Thanksgiving quickly transformed into a Christmas song, and that is how it has been known for more than a century and a half since.

James Lord Pierpoint wrote the song, originally titled One Horse Open Sleigh, in 1850 at a tavern in Medford, Mass. with the idea that he would play it for children at a Sunday school class on Thanksgiving. The inspiration likely came from that city’s sleigh races.

It was finally published in 1857 when Pierpoint was working again with children at a church, this time in Savannah, Ga. (both cities claim to be the song’s birthplace).

Along the way, the lyrics were changed slightly to appeal to a more adult audience. The four verses of the originally published version included a stop to pick up a girl, a fall from the sleigh that left a passerby laughing and – finally – encouraging the horse to go full speed.

No mention was – or is – made of Christmas.

Of course, these days there is an abundance of timeless Christmas songs, mostly thanks to a surge around World War II. It was during that time that White Christmas (written and released in 1942), The Christmas Song (written in 1945), Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (topped the charts in 1949), Silver Bells (written in 1950), The Little Drummer Boy (written in 1941, recorded in 1951), Jingle Bell Rock (released in 1957) and others entered the public consciousness to some degree and there they have stayed ever since.

Jingle Bells is just one of many included in that group. And Thanksgiving is notably short on songs of its own.

The Nashville Banner will not publish today in observance of Thanksgiving. We will resume operations on Friday.

Quote of Note

“There are three things that people pick up on the instant they walk into your home on Thanksgiving. They will be able to feel the human energy. They’ll smell the food. And they will see, instantly, the table.”

– American restaurateur Danny Meyer.