Most of us don't know all the lyrics to Jingle Bells, and they're seldom sung (the video posted below being no exception). Even fewer people know that the writer of this song, one James Pierpoint, was a traitor to his country.
Dashing through the snow
in a one-horse open sleigh,
o'er the fields we go
laughing all the way!
Bells on bob tail ring,
making spirits bright—
what fun it is to ride and sing
a sleighing song tonight!
Oh! jingle bells, jingle bells,jingle all the way.
Oh! what fun it is to ride
in a one-horse open sleigh.
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.
Oh! jingle bells, jingle bells,
jingle all the way.
Oh! what fun it is to ride
in a one-horse open sleigh.
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 as there I sprawling lie,
but quickly drove away.
Oh! jingle bells, jingle bells,
jingle all the way.
Oh! what fun it is to ride
in a one-horse open sleigh.
Now the ground is white—
go it while you're young,
take the girls tonight,
and sing this sleighing song.
Just get a bob tailed bay,
two forty as his speed,
hitch him to an open sleigh,
and crack! you'll take the lead.
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way.
Oh! what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.
