I love everything about Christmas: the cooler air, twinkling lights and cozy decorations. The smell of pine needles, fresh-baked cookies, and spiced drinks… And yes, I even love those Christmas tunes playing on loop everywhere you go.
You’ve sung them, hummed them, and heard them in every shop you enter in December. But how much do you really know about your favorite Christmas songs?
You might be surprised to learn that at least one of them was a marketing ploy. Another one was broadcast from outer space. And yet another is a veiled threat for some Christmas dessert.
The history of Christmas music is full of delightful surprises. So, today let’s have a look at three of our favorites:
Jingle Bells Rings in Christmas
It’s Not About Christmas
First let’s look at that catchy little tune, Jingle Bells. At Christmastime, you’ll hear it playing everywhere. However, this song that we think of as proclaiming the arrival of Christmas was not intended for that jolly holiday at all. The word “Christmas” is nowhere to be found in it. Neither is there any mention of December – just a lot of snow, and some thrilling winter sleigh rides.
In fact, this song is all about sleigh rides and sleigh racing; A lively, and sometimes rowdy, winter sport which was popular in the 1800s in the northern United States. With the rhythm mimicking the trot of horses over snow, accompanied by the jingling of sleigh bells, this simple song became popular all over the world… and even beyond…
It Came from Outer Space
Jingle Bells was the first (and only) Christmas song ever broadcast from space. On December 16, 1965, two astronauts aboard Gemini 6 decided to play a little prank on Mission Control. They called in to report a strange sighting:
“We have an object… looks like a satellite going from north to south… possibly in a polar orbit… I see a command module and eight smaller objects in front… the pilot is wearing a red suit…”
Then just as all the Mission Control people were about to throw their hands up and declare that Santa Clause was, indeed, real… The astronauts revealed their joke when one of them began playing Jingle Bells on a harmonica while the other rang some sleigh bells. Ho ho ho!
So, Jingle Bells began as a song about winter fun, was sung in space, and is now sung around the world to ring in Christmas cheer.
Let’s Shine a Light on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
It Was All About Marketing
Rudolph, the world’s most famous reindeer, didn’t begin life as a song – or even as part of Christmas folklore. He was born as a marketing ploy during the Great Depression.
In 1939 Robert May, an employee of Montgomery Ward department store, was tasked with writing a Christmas story. It was for a little holiday booklet that would be handed out to children visiting the store. It was a simple marketing idea: offer a charming gift to draw families into the store – and, of course, they would spend a bit of money while they were there.
An Odd Nose Becomes a Superpower
May came up with a cute story about a shy, misfit reindeer with a shining red nose – something that made him odd and different from the others. However, Rudolph’s glowing nose became the very thing that was needed to help Santa guide his sleigh through a thick fog and save Christmas. It was a simple, sweet tale of an outsider who became a hero. Both children and adults instantly fell in love with Rudolph.
That first Christmas, Montgomery Ward distributed 2.4 million copies of the little book. Then a few years later, May’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, turned the story into the now-iconic song. And it soon became one of the best-selling Christmas songs of all time.
So, from a department-store giveaway to a symbol of holiday magic, Rudolph’s story continues to shine.
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Only if You Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding…
We Wish You a Merry Christmas is one of the oldest Christmas carols still widely sung today – and one of the few that ends with a demand for dessert.
Its origins stretch back to 16th-century England. In those days, groups of singers – often cheerful, persistent, and slightly mischievous – would go door to door singing (or wassailing).
Good tidings we bring, to you and your kin… The singers would bring good tidings to the households they sang for, but it wasn’t free… Oh no, they expected something in return.
Now bring us some figgy pudding… In exchange for their song and good tidings, they wanted some figgy pudding, a spicy fruitcake which was (and still is) a popular Christmas dessert in England.
We won’t go until we get some… In fact, they wanted that figgy pudding so much that they got a bit threatening. They weren’t about to leave until they got some. …So bring it right here!
We Wish You a Merry Christmas has lasted through the centuries and reminds us of some of the important things about the holiday season: generosity, music, and yummy desserts.
So the next time those familiar Christmas tunes start playing, listen a little more closely. Behind the jingling bells, glowing noses, and cheerful demands for figgy pudding are stories of winter fun, clever marketing, playful astronauts, and centuries-old traditions.
These songs are more than background noise to the season, they’re small pieces of history that have helped shape the magic of Christmas, one note at a time.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
What do you think? Do you have a favorite Christmas song? Let me know in the comments section below. And if you want to read more of my curious histories, subscribe to my blog (at the top or bottom of this page).
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