Popular myths about the classic holiday tune have circulated for decades, obscuring its origins on the minstrel stage.

And this has been going on forever. Hear me out. Jingle Bells is not a Christmas song. It is certainly not – as I’ve seen claimed once or twice – a Christmas carol. My advisers tells me the ...

Pierpont wrote his Christmas classic in the autumn of 1857. You know the song as “Jingle Bells,” but “One Horse Open Sleigh” was its original title. Pierpont wrote it as a Thanksgiving song.

It’s annually voted the most popular Christmas song. Perhaps it’s the most controversial. When Savannah resident James L.