You think you know Jingle Bells. You’ve sung it since kindergarten, usually while wearing a scratchy sweater and holding a plastic candy cane. But honestly? The version we belt out at office parties is a sanitized, simplified ghost of the lyrics Jingle Bells original song.
The real story is weirder. It’s rowdier. And surprisingly, it has almost nothing to do with Christmas.
James Lord Pierpont, a man whose life was basically a series of chaotic career pivots, wrote the tune in the mid-19th century. He was the brother of John Pierpont Jr., a prominent Unitarian minister, and the uncle of the legendary financier J.P. Morgan. While the family had deep roots in the temperance movement and abolitionism, James was a bit of a rebel. He ran away to sea at 14, joined the California Gold Rush, and eventually ended up in Savannah, Georgia.
It was during his time in the North, likely Medford, Massachusetts, around 1850, that he penned the song. At the time, it wasn’t called "Jingle Bells." It was "The One Horse Open Sleigh."
The Missing Verses of the Lyrics Jingle Bells Original Song
Most people stop after the first verse. They hit the chorus, maybe do a second lap, and call it a day. But if you look at the lyrics Jingle Bells original song, the narrative is less about "holiday cheer" and more about "drag racing and dating."
The second verse introduces us to a guy named Fanny Bright.
"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 we, we got upsot."
"Upsot" is just a 19th-century way of saying they flipped the sleigh. It’s a comedy of errors. It’s also a suggestive scene for the 1850s. Taking a young woman out in a fast sleigh with no supervisor was the Victorian equivalent of taking a date out in a hot rod. Sleighing was a high-speed, high-adrenaline social activity.
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Then comes the third verse. This is where it gets really messy.
"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."
Not exactly "peace on earth," right? The narrator falls on his face, and a passerby literally laughs at him and keeps driving. It’s a song about a bad day in the snow.
Why Savannah and Medford Are Still Fighting
There is a long-standing, slightly petty feud between Medford, Massachusetts, and Savannah, Georgia, over where this song truly belongs.
Medford claims it because Pierpont supposedly wrote it while sitting in Simpson’s Tavern, inspired by the sleigh races on Salem Street. The town even has a plaque. They argue the references to snow and sleighs obviously point to a New England winter. You don’t get many one-horse open sleighs in the Georgia humidity.
Savannah, however, is where Pierpont copyrighted the song in 1857. He was the organist for the Unitarian church there. They claim that even if he dreamed of snow while in the North, the song "found its soul" in the South. In 1985, the mayor of Savannah even wrote to the mayor of Medford to "respectfully disagree" with their claim.
Politics. Over a jingle.
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The Musical DNA of a Sleigh Race
The rhythm of the lyrics Jingle Bells original song wasn’t meant to be a slow, melodic carol. It was meant to mimic the trot of a horse. If you listen to the original melody—which was actually more complex and slightly different from the one we use today—it has a jerky, syncopated feel.
Pierpont was writing for the minstrel stage.
It’s a gritty reality of American music history. "The One Horse Open Sleigh" was first performed in blackface at Ordway Hall in Boston. This context is often scrubbed from history books because it’s uncomfortable, but it’s essential for understanding how the song spread. Minstrel shows were the most popular form of entertainment in the U.S. at the time. Without that platform, the song likely would have vanished into the archives of forgotten sheet music.
What "Jingle" Actually Means
We treat "Jingle" as a verb today. Jingle those bells! But in the mid-1800s, "jingle" was often used as an adjective or a specific type of bell. More importantly, "jingle bells" referred to the sound of the bells that were required by law. Because horse-drawn sleighs were nearly silent on the snow, they were dangerous to pedestrians. Many cities passed ordinances requiring "jingle bells" to be attached to the harness so people could hear the sleighs coming.
So, when the song says "Jingle bells, jingle bells," it’s not just a festive command. It’s a description of the safety equipment on the horse.
The Verse Nobody Sings Anymore
The final verse is basically an 1857 version of a "Fast and Furious" monologue.
"Now the ground is white, go it while you’re young,
Take the girls tonight and sing this sleighing song;
Just get a bob-tailed bay, two forty as his speed,
Hitch him to an open sleigh, and crack! you'll take the lead."🔗 Read more: Who is Really in the Enola Holmes 2 Cast? A Look at the Faces Behind the Mystery
"Two forty as his speed" refers to a horse that can run a mile in two minutes and forty seconds. That was incredibly fast for the time. It was a boast. The song is encouraging young men to grab a fast horse, grab some girls, and race. It’s a party anthem.
How It Became a Christmas Song
If the lyrics Jingle Bells original song are about drag racing, falling in the snow, and picking up girls, how did it become the anthem of the North Pole?
Radio and recording history changed everything. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, "Jingle Bells" started appearing on holiday compilation records. It was secular, catchy, and mentioned snow. Since Christmas was becoming more of a commercial, family-oriented holiday centered around winter imagery, the song fit the vibe perfectly.
By the time Bing Crosby recorded it in 1943 with the Andrews Sisters, the "racing and chasing" aspect was buried under layers of holiday polish. We forgot about the crash in the snowbank. We forgot about the mean guy laughing at the fallen narrator. We just wanted to hear about the bells.
Interestingly, "Jingle Bells" was the first song broadcast from space. In December 1965, the crew of Gemini 6A—Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford—played a prank on Mission Control. They reported seeing a "UFO" in a low polar orbit, wearing a red suit. Then they pulled out a smuggled harmonica and a handful of small bells and played the tune.
Even in space, the "original" meaning was gone, replaced by the universal symbol of the holiday season.
How to Experience the Authentic Version
If you want to actually appreciate the history of this track, you have to look past the department store speakers.
- Listen to the 1857 melody. There are several recordings on YouTube where music historians play the original, more jagged melody on period-accurate instruments. It sounds less like a carol and more like a folk-dance.
- Read the lyrics as a story. Forget the "Christmas" part. Read the four verses as a narrative about a guy trying to impress a girl, failing miserably, getting mocked by a neighbor, and then telling his friends to go out and do the same thing because youth is fleeting.
- Acknowledge the Medford/Savannah connection. If you’re ever in Medford, visit the marker at 19 High Street. If you’re in Savannah, check out the historical marker in Troup Square. Both places are part of the song’s DNA.
The lyrics Jingle Bells original song remind us that culture is fluid. We take a rowdy, somewhat cynical song about 19th-century drag racing and turn it into a lullaby for toddlers. That’s just how history works. But knowing the "upsot" truth makes the song a lot more interesting when it inevitably starts playing on a loop every December.
To get the full experience of the original, try reading the lyrics aloud without the modern melody. You’ll notice the internal rhymes and the slang of the 1850s—like "bob-tailed bay"—pop in a way they don't when you're just humming along. If you're a musician, look up the sheet music for "The One Horse Open Sleigh" specifically. The shifts in the chorus might surprise you, as the modern version has been "straightened out" over the last century to make it easier for crowds to sing.