Few people realize that one of our most popular Christmas carols has nothing to do with the Christmas season at all.

In fact, this much-loved carol, called “Jingle Bells,” describes a man with his horse and sleigh. Although it was composed as far back as 1857, it is still as popular today as it was when it was first sung such a long time ago.

The carol is generally known by its chorus, which is familiar to everyone:

Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh

The author of the carol, James Pierpoint, lived in Medford, Mass., and indeed on the Christmas he wrote the carol he was anything but happy.

His sleigh was certainly not pulled by eight reindeer but rather by a swift little mare called Cleo. Cleo and the battered sleigh were virtually the only things that he possessed since he lost nearly all his money when he made his way to California some years earlier to try to make his fortune in the Gold Rush there.

He had returned home with empty pockets, but in addition to his love for his faithful Cleo, who he had taken with him to California, his other love was for music. Indeed, the only way he could make money to feed Cleo and himself was by playing the organ on Sundays at various churches.

He rented a room for himself at a boarding house, where one of the other lodgers owned a battered old piano. He and the lodger, William Webber, became good friends, and soon they struck up a bargain: Pierpoint was to be allowed to play the piano to entertain himself, and William was allowed to use Cleo and the sleigh when he wanted to visit his friends in the countryside.

Then one day in the middle of winter, as Pierpoint prepared to call on his friends, he decided to buy a string of small bells that he placed around Cleo’s proud neck, thinking that the tinkle of the bells would add to the pleasure of the coming sleigh ride.

In fact, the rhythmic music of the ringing bells and the clopping of Cleo’s hooves on the road certainly did that. As Pierpoint heard the music of the bells combining with the rhythmic sound of Cleo’s hooves, he said to himself, “They all make a beautiful sound; you can almost feel the movement of the sleigh and hear the dainty sound of Cleo’s hooves at the same time.”

After he had returned from visiting his friends, Pierpoint sat down at the piano and attempted to copy the sound of the sleigh ringing. He pecked away at the piano for more than two hours before coming up with a pleasant little tune that satisfied him. Then he worked on the words, and in less than half an hour, he had completed the two verses. It was a happy song, and in the middle of it, he placed the name of his landlady, Fanny Bright, just for some fun.

The words read:

Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh
O’er the fields we go
Laughing all the way;
Bells on bobtail ring
Making spirits bright
Oh what fun it is to sing
A sleighing song tonight.

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 then we got upsot.

Young people sang this merry carol on sleigh rides all that winter long in the Medford area, and Pierpoint and his horse Cleo soon became famous with nearly everyone.

But then tragedy struck. Later in the year, Pierpoint became very ill, and his doctors advised him that he had to leave the area since his fragile health would not survive another New England winter.

He was forced to part with his faithful Cleo, who he sold to a friend in order to raise enough money to pay for his fare to a warmer part of the country, where his brother lived. Here, his health improved, and he went to study music in a local college. Soon he was appointed head of the music department of Quitman Academy in Savannah, Ga.

His brother, who was the minister of a flourishing church in Savannah, asked him one pleasant winter evening if he had a jolly song for his Sunday school pupils to sing at a Christmas social. Pierpoint now remembered the little song he had written about his much-loved mare, Cleo, and the old sleigh he once owned, and he went to rummage for a copy of the song amongst his papers in the attic.

As he dusted the only copy of the song that brought back such lovely memories of Cleo and the merry New England sleigh, he remembered how he had written the music and the words in the first place. Then he handed the work to his brother and, sure enough, the Sunday school pupils loved the song. In fact, it was the big hit of that 1857 social.

Pierpoint was amazed that the Christmas carol was so popular, and he went out and obtained the copyright on it. The carol was soon published, and the rest is history.

A simple tune written about the beautiful rhythm of the bells on a sleigh ride with Cleo pulling the sleigh went on to become one of the country’s most popular carols, and it was to be sung in all parts of the world where English was spoken.

While Pierpoint failed to discover treasure in the gold of the West, he created a national treasure that could never be replaced by any precious gold. It is a jolly Christmas song and carol, all about a particular sleigh and horse. Happy Christmas.