Gwen Berry
Like “Over the River and Through the Woods,” Jingle Bells is holiday song that came out of Medford, Massachusetts. Medford resident James Lord Pierpont wrote the song sometime in the 1850s about an activity that was all the rage in the snowy northern parts of our country – sleigh racing. Sleigh racing and sleigh rides were common activities in the mid-1800s, giving young men and women a chance for fraternization and a bit of drinking, and everyone a chance to show off their horses.
Kyna Hamill, professor of literature at Boston University and vice-president of the Medford Historical Society, explained to the CBC that the “sleigh rides” in the song were actually dangerous street races up and down Salem Street. “Medford is home to a series of sleigh races that used to occur on a street called Salem Street, and because of this event, which pretty much happened in the middle of the 19th century, these sleigh races — which you could pretty much call drag races — down this street were one of the most popular events,” said Hamill. “Because of that, the influence and inspiration of the song, we believe, came from those races.”
Look for the clues that it’s about racing when you read the full lyrics:
Jingle Bells
Dashing through the snow In a one-horse open sleigh
O’er the fields we go
Laughing all the way
Bells on bob tail ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight!
Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way.
Oh! what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.
Hey! Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way;
Oh! what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.
[Although less well-known than the opening, the remaining verses depict high-speed youthful fun. In the second verse, the narrator takes a ride with a girl and loses control of the sleigh:]
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]
|: chorus 😐
[In the next verse (which is often skipped), he falls out of the sleigh and a rival laughs at him:]
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. Ah!
|: chorus 😐
[In the last verse, after relating his experience, he gives advice to a friend to pick up some girls, find a faster horse, and take off at full speed:]
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[b]
Hitch him to an open sleigh
And crack! you’ll take the lead.
|: chorus 😐
Notes to lyrics:
(a) “Upsot” is a jocular variant of “upset”.
(b) Two forty refers to a mile in two minutes and forty seconds at the trot, or 22.5 miles per hour (36.2 km/h). This is a good speed, and suggests the desired horse of that era was a type later known as a Standardbred.