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Episode Transcript
The song jingle bells. You know, jingle bells? Jingle bells?
What's this rumor about it not being written for Christmas
but rather for Thanksgiving? Plus Christmas decorations? They seem to
be going up earlier and earlier every year. When did
all this begin? My name is Errol. I'm a daily writer,
a silent wolf. That means I stand on the sidelines
(00:20):
and do nothing but watch, listen, study, then activate. I
call it the daily Mess, a chronological walk through an
everyday world. Yes, it's my morning writing as a receiver
of thoughts and ideas. We as people tend to throw
things to the side and we'll deal with it later. Yes,
sometimes when a subject arrives inside of me, I dig in.
(00:42):
It's still my daily journal. But by doing the research,
the picture becomes clearer. This is the daily Mess. Is
it true that jingle Bells was originally written to be
a Thanksgiving song? James Lord Pierpoint he pinned out jingle
Bells in eighteen fifty to celebrate the annual Thanksgiving Day
sleigh ride and races in Medford, Massachusetts. The original title
(01:06):
was one Horse, Open Sleigh. It was first performed inside
a church, but oh oh, oh Oh. The song lyrics
were looked upon as being a little bit too racy.
It was finally published in eighteen fifty seven, but unassociated
with Christmas until the eighteen sixties. It was slowly moving
through the parlors, but became an instant famous hit in
(01:27):
the nineteen forties when Bing Crosby put his version of
it on a Christmas album. The song doesn't mention Christmas
or any other holiday. Even today, the lyrics are still
accused of being less wholesome, especially since it sings about
picked up girls, drag racing, and high speed crashes. Some
of the original lyrics included A day or two ago,
(01:48):
I thought I'd take a ride Miss Fanny Bright seated
by my side. Here's another one. He got into a
drifted bank, then got upsot. Wow, there's a word for you, upsot.
A third lyric, Now the ground is white, go at
it while you're young. Take the girls tonight. As for
(02:09):
the bells and jingle bells, oh, they were actually used
in real life, and the reason why was to help
prevent collisions in the snow. Hey coming up next. No
matter where you are in the world, decorations around Christmas
are very, very important. But what's its origin? Hey, welcome
back to the daily mess. No matter where you are
(02:30):
in the United States and around the world, Christmas decorations
are already up in small and large cities. What is
this arrival in colors and flashing lights really represent? Top
of the list? Faith? Christmas decorations serve as a religious symbol,
the star at the top of the tree, the candy cane.
It takes the shape of a shepherd's staff. Christmas decorations
(02:52):
can also invoke nostalgia and childhood excitement. Decorations are also
great for mental health, to which I totally agree with
because during the COVID lockdown, we turned on our Christmas
tree every single night, and to this day, four years later,
that tree is ever so bright in our dining room.
Its presence is seen as a huge positive inside our hearts.
(03:14):
Decorating for Christmas actually started in sixteenth century Germany. The
decorated trees were called paradise trees. Now, it was Queen
Charlotte of Britain who really brought some popularity to it.
In the eighteen hundreds, she decorated the Yu tree with bobbles,
fruit toys and candies for a children's party. Now, here's
(03:35):
the thing, the strange twist in every bit of this.
It is also written that in the fifth century BC,
the Celts used a decorative tree as a symbol of
life during the winter solstice. So many questions, but very
fun to just dig in. I'm Errol, and that's the
daily mess.
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