Fun Christmas Trivia: Jingle Bells

Christmas wreaths are religious symbols

The custom of bringing evergreens into the home began in the 16th century among northern and eastern Europeans, primarily Germans, as a means of cleaning up the Christmas tree and making it more uniform. Instead of throwing out cut-off greens, people wove the excess into wreaths. However, the religious significance is that the circular shape and evergreen material of the wreath represent eternal life. The circle, which has no beginning or end, “symbolizes the eternity of God, the immortality of the soul and the everlasting life we find in Christ.”

Celebrating Christmas used to be illegal

From 1659 to 1681, anyone caught making merry in the colonies would face a fine for celebrating. The Massachusetts Bay Colony created the Penalty for Keeping Christmas. It was thought that “such festivals as were superstitiously kept in other countries” and were “a great dishonor of God and offense of others. The penalty for breaking the law was five shillings. By the Revolutionary War, the day had so little significance that Congress even held their first session on December 25, 1789. Christmas wasn’t even proclaimed a federal holiday for almost another century, proving that the Grinch’s attitude toward the holiday was alive and well long before he was.

Rudolph was a marketing ploy

The beloved reindeer was created by a copywriter for the Montgomery Ward department store in 1939. He wrote Rudolph into a children’s story that could be given out to promote the store. It was a huge hit, with more than 2.4 million copies distributed in its first year! In 1949 Gene Autry recorded the famous song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and in 1964 came the movie featuring the island of misfit toys.

The eight tiny reindeer have had lots of names

Rudolph was almost named Rollo or Reginald and his crew also had lots of other names. They’ve previously been called Flossie, Glossie, Racer, Pacer, Scratcher, Feckless, Ready, Steady and Fireball.

“Jingle Bells” was originally a Thanksgiving song

Turns out, we first started dashing through the snow for an entirely different holiday. James Lord Pierpont wrote the song called “One Horse Open Sleigh” for his church’s Thanksgiving concert in the mid-19th century. Then in 1857, the song was re-released under the title we all know and love and it’s still among the most popular Christmas songs today.