Author: Donna Ardizzoni

“Jingle Bells” is one of the most popular Christmas songs ever written. Except it’s not a Christmas song. It was written to celebrate Thanksgiving. In 1850, James Lord Pierpont was hanging out in a tavern in Medford, Massachusetts, when he was inspired by Medford’s famous sleigh races to write a tune called ‘One Horse Open Sleigh” for a children’s Thanksgiving play. Everyone loved it so much that it became incorporated into Christmas. Another bit of trivia for you: Mr. Pierpont was the uncle of banker John Pierpont Morgan, better known as J.P. Morgan. “Jingle Bells” was also the first song broadcast from space, in a Christmas-themed prank by Gemini 6 astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra.