A colleague

of mine at work has been listening to the non-stop Christmas carols on

Peach 94.9FM since before Thanksgiving. Each day when we go to lunch we

listen to the carols and I cringe. I'm not against Christmas carols but

I am not a big fan of Mannheim Steamroller or Kenny G and both of those

artists are featured prominently on the station.

I decided to

do a little research on Christmas carols and ended up reading many lyrics

to some of the most beloved songs. I started wondering how these songs

came to be so popular and what, if anything, they mean. Now, I ignored

the religious songs because we know what they mean and why they are sung,

so the carols I examined were non-secular.

First, I'd

like to look at the carols with the word "jingle" in the title.

There are three of them "Jingle Bells," "Jingle, Jingle,

Jingle" and "Jingle Bell Rock." The dictionary defines

"jingle" as a tinkling or clinging sound, so "jingle"

is just an example of onomatopoeia. I imagine that the songwriter tried

tinkle first and decided that it just didn't sound right. If you need

something to be thankful for this holiday season, remember you're not

running around singing "tinkle all the way."

The lyrics

for "Jingle Bells" were very interesting. Apparently there are

two other verses that are not as well known and they have nothing to do

with Batman and the Batmobile. The lyrics are as follows:

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,/We ran

into a drifted bank/And there we got upsot.

A day or two

ago/The story I must tell/I went out on the snow/And on my back I fell;/A

gent was riding by/In a one-horse open sleigh/He laughed at me as I there

sprawling laid/But quickly drove away.

Now tell the

truth. You have never heard nor sung those lyrics before. That poor man

who wrote "Jingle Bells" has two verses that go virtually ignored.

As for "Jingle,

Jingle, Jingle," that song reached popularity in the Rudolph the

Red Nosed Reindeer television special. I wasn't that familiar with the

song but apparently it is sung by Kris Kringle, aka Santa Claus, aka S.

Diddy. "Jingle Bell Rock" is a cute little festive song that

uses the word jingle like it is going out of style. By the way, anybody

know where "Jingle Bell Square" is?

In conclusion,

to this part of the column, jingle was used as a synonym for tinkle or

clinging and has since become synonymous with the Christmas season.

The next interesting

thing I found was looking at "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

This carol is one of the more popular ones because it often leaves the

singers breathless and laughing as they count down this enormous list

of gifts that the songwriter's true love gave to him. In addition, people

love belting out the "Five Golden Rings" part. Have you ever

thought about what is one this person's list of gifts though? A partridge,

two turtle doves, three french hens, four calling birds, six geese a laying

and seven swans a swimming -- that's 23 birds, not counting the baby geese

that will be coming in spring time. This guy must have liked birds a lot.

Either that or his true love must be one very confused lady.

Now, ignore

the five golden rings, which I guess is a good gift - if you're Deion

Sanders - and look at the remaining gifts. Eight maids a milking, nine

ladies dancing, 10 lords a leaping, 11 pipers piping and 12 drummers drumming

- that's 50 people. This person must have a huge house. I also started

to feel bad for the one lord-a-leaping who doesn't get to pair up with

one of the nine ladies dancing. The song also made me wonder how right

it is to give the gift of people during the holidays.

Lastly, I found

a Christmas carol that I had never heard before and neither had anyone

else in the office. The song is called "Little Sandy Sleighfoot."

The song tells of a four foot elf with feet that are over three feet tall.

Sandy is a clumsy elf who learns that he can use his feet as skis. This

abnormality comes in handy when the reindeer barn is burning one night

I'm not sure how the barn caught fire or how Sandy saved the reindeer,

but he did and he went down in history. I imagine someone wanted to invent

a character that would get his own annual animated special and the royalties

would keep the person from ever working again. I don't think it has worked

quite yet.

There are lots

of Christmas carols out there and these were just a few of the things

I wanted to touch on. Perhaps I will examine more carols next week. Until

then, hop in a one horsed sleigh and enjoy some roasted chestnuts.

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