Was This Famous Christmas Song Really Written For Thanksgiving?

Now's the time of year we start hearing all our favorite Christmas music, even though we're just heading into Thanksgiving. But was this famous Christmas song really written about Thanksgiving?

Well, according to the American Music Preservation site, the classic Christmas song Jingles Bells, was "written by Medford, Mass. resident James Pierpont in 1850, inspired by the annual one-horse open-sleigh races on Salem and Pleasant Streets between Medford Square and Malden Square." But, the site goes on to say that it was written more as a Thanksgiving song, not Christmas, saying that Pierpont "wrote his popular winter song for his father's Sunday School class for Thanksgiving and it proved so popular that it was sung again at Christmas time."

This Christmas music history sight seems to verify that story as well, saying, "No matter how charming the legends surrounding the origins of this tune may be, one thing is for sure - “The One Horse Open Sleigh” was most definitely not written as a song with Christmas in mind," and that the poem that inspired the song "was recited during a Thanksgiving mass sometime in the 1840's in Medford. It was so favorably received by the audience that it was again performed for Christmas mass that same year, establishing it as a Christmas favorite ever since."

So even though we associate it with Christmas, the next time you hear Jingle Bells this holiday season, keep in mind it was originally sung for Thanksgiving. Which actually seems kind of cool!