Dashing through the snow

In a one-horse open sleigh

Over the fields we go

Laughing all the way … Ha, Ha, Ha! 

So goes the opening verse of one of the most popular and beloved Christmas carols of all time, “Jingle Bells”; a song that never once mentions Christmas, Santa, Jesus, or even cold weather.

Most folks never sing past the opening verse and the chorus, though if they did they’d find that not only is Jingle Bells not about Christmas, it’s about horse racing and making out with girls.

In 1840 at the Unitarian Church in Bedford, Mass., the pastor, James Pierpont, was planning a Thanksgiving service. He asked his son, who was also the church’s choirmaster, to write a special song for the occasion.

As the younger Pierpont pondered what things he was thankful for, he noticed outside of his home a group of kids racing sleds in the snow. He remembered his own teenage years when he’d enter his bob-tailed bay in horse races against other boys.

The prize for the winners of the race? Hugs and kisses from the girls who were watching!

Pierpont quickly wrote the song and played it for his father. The elder Pierpont thought it was cute, so he allowed his son to teach the song to the children’s choir, who performed it for the congregation at the Thanksgiving celebration.

It was a big hit, and the congregation asked if they could teach the song to the choir and have it performed again. Rev. Pierpont agreed and asked his son to ready the choir to perform it at the Christmas weekend services.

That weekend saw many out of town visitors in Medford visiting family for the holidays. Many of those in attendance were so charmed by what they assumed was a new Christmas song that they jotted down the lyrics and carried the song to places all over New England.

The Salem, Mass. Evening News eventually did a story on the song. The younger Pierpont had the song recorded and published, and by 1870, “Jingle Bells”, a Unitarian Thanksgiving song about horse racing, was the most popular American Christmas carol.

The lyrics after the now-famous first verse, should you want to impress everyone at the office Christmas party this year: 

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

He got into a drifted bank

And then we got upsot.

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.

Now the ground is white

Go it while you're young,

Take the girls tonight

and sing this sleighing song;

Just get a bobtailed bay

Two forty as his speed

Hitch him to an open sleigh

And crack! you'll take the lead.