Interesting, I never knew that. But then, I never gave Jingle Bells a second thought. And if I would have, my first guess would probably have been along the lines ‘this must have something to do with Morris dancers’.
Anyway, you got me reading up on it on Wikipedia, so now that I’m suddenly an expert my guess is, it’s a combination of
- the mental images a horse drawn sleigh and all that snow invoke
- it was perfect raw material for Hollywood hokum
and we all know that perception is reality.
What I really was delighted about was learnig that it was the first song broadcast from space. From Wikipedia:
“Jingle Bells” was the first song broadcast from space, in a Christmas-themed prank by Gemini 6 astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra. While in space on December 16, 1965, they sent this report to Mission Control: “We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit… I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit…” The astronauts then produced a smuggled harmonica and sleigh bells and broadcast a rendition of “Jingle Bells.” The harmonica, shown to the press upon their return, was a Hohner “Little Lady”, a tiny harmonica approximately one inch long, by 3/8 of an inch wide.
