Songs that were never written for Christmas

WHENEVER we hear Jingle Bells it makes us think of Christmas, but the tune was actually written for a Thanksgiving concert

A Christmas card from the 1860s of Central Park, New York, in winter published by Currier and Ives.

WHEN we gather around the piano, television or bluetooth speakers listening to or singing carols this Christmas, there are plenty of favourites to choose from. Many mention the birth of Jesus or Santa bringing presents, while others sing about snow. But there are some songs that don’t really belong with the others.

These songs were really never meant for Christmas but somehow have ended up as standards on the festive season hit parade. One of the most famous is Jingle Bells.

Traditionally associated with Yuletide in the northern hemisphere, if you listen to the lyrics — despite the mention of snow and a sleigh — the song has nothing to do with Christmas. When it was composed people travelled in horse-drawn sleighs during the winter months, but it wasn’t always Christmas when it happened.

Jingle Bells was written by James Lord Pierpont, born in Boston in 1822, the son of preacher. He ran away to sea at 14 and served in the navy until he was 21. When he returned home he tried his hand at various jobs, including opening a store selling goods to prospectors (it failed) and photography. But he found his calling writing and teaching music, and playing the organ. During the Civil War he fought for the south and wrote rousing songs for the Confederate troops to sing.

Organist James Pierpont wrote the song One Horse Open Sleigh, which was later renamed Jingke Bells, in 1857.

His most famous tune, originally titled One Horse Open Sleigh was composed for a Thanksgiving concert in 1857. Pierpont was inspired by his own experiences as a lad riding with girls in sleighs when the first snows fell.

Claims One Horse Open Sleigh was first performed at a Sunday school concert seem unlikely given the secular and saucy lyrics such as “Go it while you’re young, take the girls tonight.”

After its first outing the song became so popular that it was replayed that year at a Christmas concert and has been forever associated with the holiday.

A similar tune is the instrumental Sleigh Ride, composed by Leroy Anderson, the great American composer of light orchestral tunes. The idea for the tune came during a heatwave in 1946 when he was holidaying in Connecticut. Perhaps he was thinking about cooler conditions, not specifically of Christmas, just a musical depiction of winters past.

Sleigh Ride premiered with the Boston Pops orchestra in May 1948, and had no association with Christmas. Even when someone put lyrics to the tune in 1950 it still had nothing to do with Santa, Jesus, presents or reindeer. But the jingling bells and the sleigh in the name made it a natural Christmas favourite.

Sleigh Ride & Other Holiday Favourites by Leroy Anderson.

Lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Julie Styne were also stuck in a heatwave, perhaps also wishing things were cooler, when they wrote Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! in July 1945. Again the song doesn’t mention Christmas Another ring-in Christmas tune is Joy To The World. Written by Isaac Watts, born in 1674, it was one of many songs written by him after he complained about the quality of church hymns. His father challenged him to write something better. So he did, penning, in fact, more than 4500 hymns. But the most popular is Joy To The World, first published in 1719. Drawn from the Psalms it is actually a vision of the second coming of Jesus Christ, not the saviour’s birth. But people found that the lyrics could apply equally well to Christmas.

A statue of 18th century composer Isaac Watts in central Southampton park in England.

Jerry Herman used the word Christmas in a song he wrote for the musical Mame, which premiered on Broadway in 1966, but the tune We Need A Little Christmas was not a Christmas song.

In the show, title character Mame (Angela Lansbury) loses her fortune in the Wall St Crash of October in 1929. But Mame needs some cheering up so she wants to rush to December 25. The lyrics say “Yes, we need a little Christmas, Right this very minute, It hasn’t snowed a single flurry, But Santa, dear, we’re in a hurry.” Another character points out in the song that it is only “one week past Thanksgiving Day”, which might mean when shops start gearing up for Christmas, but back in the ’20s (and even in the ’60s when the song was written) there was still a reasonable gap between the two festivals.

There is also a story that the music for Christmas favourite, Ding Dong Merrily On High, started out in the 16th century as a rustic bawdy song sung by wenches to lure men into taverns in southern France. The English lyrics we know, with a renaissance feel, were only added by English priest George Ratcliffe Woodward in the 19th century.

Originally published as Songs that were never written for Christmas