13 December: Jingle Bells

Christmas music, driving you crazy already since you've been hearing it since October. How much do you know about traditional Christmas songs? Here's the low down on Jingle Bells.

1. Jingle Bells was written by James Lord Pierpont. He was the uncle of the banker, JP Morgan.
2. He originally named the song "One Horse Open Sleigh" when it was first published in 1857. Two years later, however, it was re-issued as "Jingle Bells".
3. We tend to assume nowadays that "Jingle Bells" is a noun, a description of the bells on a sleigh. However, the words were most likely a verb, a command, in fact, encouraging the sleigh riders to jingle the bells. A sleigh travelling on Snow, like today's electric cars, makes hardly any sound, and so the bells were there to warn people that a sleigh was coming.
4. Where Pierpont was when he wrote the song is a matter of dispute. Medford Massachusetts has put up a plaque at 19 High Street, claiming the song was written there in 1850 when the building was a tavern. Doubts have been cast on this because, would he really have waited seven years to publish it? Savannah, Georgia, then, may have been the birthplace of the song, since that was where Pierpont was living in 1857.
5. It wasn't written as a Christmas song. You may have noted that Christmas isn't mentioned in the lyrics at all. It has been suggested that it was first performed at a Thanksgiving service.
6. James Lord Pierpont came from a staunch abolitionist family, but he was somewhat of a rebel. Jingle Bells was often sung at parties as a drinking song, jingling the ice in their drinks as they sang.
7. Doubt has also been cast on the song being written for a church service or to be sung by a Sunday School class. While the verses we are familiar with seem innocent enough, there are more verses which aren't often sung these days. These verses tell of a couple going on a sleighride unchaperoned and ending up being tipped out onto the snow. What they got up to after that is anyone's guess.
8. The first recording of Jingle Bells was by Will Lyle in 1889 on an Edison cylinder, although no copies of it survive. The oldest recording of the song which still exists dates back to 1898 and is by the Edison Male Quartet. Since then, the song has been recorded many times by a wide variety of performers including Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, The Beatles, Duke Ellington, The Chipmunks, Pavarotti, Barry Manilow, Frank Sinatra, Gwen Stefani and NSync. There have been a number of novelty recordings, too, featuring people laughing (laughing all the way) or Dogs barking.
9. Sometimes the lyrics get changed. We probably all recall the playground version: "Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin flew away". In Australia, where Christmas falls in the middle of summer, there's a version which includes the lyrics "Dashing through the bush", "kicking up the dust" and "Christmas in Australia on a scorching summer's day, hey!"
10. It was the first song ever to be broadcast from space. In December 1965, the crews of Gemini 6 and 7 completed a rendezvous in space, and then sent a report of an unidentified flying object they'd spotted. It was "like a satellite going north to south in a polar orbit" with a low trajectory which looked as if it was going to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and mission control might soon be able to pick it up. At this point astronaut Wally Schirra played Jingle bells on a harmonica, and Tom Stafford shook some sleigh bells they'd brought along.

A Christmas Novella

A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

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