Before the holiday season slips completely away, I 'd like to say a word on behalf of poor maligned "Jingle Bells". It has the reputation of being maybe one of the most overplayed tunes piped in at the mall. But there's a lot more to it.

One of the verses says "Now the ground is white/ Go it while you're young/ Take the girls tonight/ And sing a sleighing song.

I've read that that can be seen as an early version of a Beach Boys song---"pretty girls and fast sleighs--nothing ever changes"--said the article I saw. Maybe "Little Honda" -- "Put on a ragged sweatshirt--I'll take you anywhere you want me to".   

Also, "Jingle Bells" was probably meant neither as a Christmas nor Thanksgiving song--it was just jumping on the 1850's sleighing song craze.

Now the song is the object of competition between Massachusetts and South Carolina--both claim it. Published in Massachusetts--but very likely written in Savannah--by James Pierpont, who was remembering Northern winters. As I recall, his brother or father was the strongly abolitionist pastor of a Unitarian Savannah church--until forced out. (And one of his nephews was J P. Morgan--though he himself was not particularly successful financially. Sure didn't get much out of "Jingle Bells" during his lifetime.

But as I said earlier, I find that the more you know about a song, the more you appreciate it. At least I find that to be so.

I like the song--and it sure is always a hit with kids--especially if you bring some actual "jingle bells" they can shake. It's requested a lot when we do door-to-door SATB caroling.   (This year the weather was the worst it's been in 15 years of the caroling--so we invited some neighbors who wanted to hear us to Jan's and my house instead for the caroling party.)