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Carols & Music

Christmas Carols and Music

Every carol has a story. “Silent Night” was first sung on Christmas Eve, 1818, in a church in Austria, and “Jingle Bells” was first published in Boston in 1857, under another name.

Read the whole stories, and sing the words: Silent Night and Jingle Bells.

Three children singing carols in the snow, two holding songbooks and one a lantern.
Plate X Three voices, two songbooks and a lantern in the snow.

In this chapter

  1. Who wrote “Jingle Bells”? Was it a Thanksgiving song?7 minTrue story
  2. Who wrote “Silent Night”?6 minTrue story

Where our facts come from

  1. Silent Night Society (Stille Nacht Gesellschaft), "History of the Song", "Die Fakten", the 1818 entry ("world premiere on Christmas Eve in the St. Nicholas church of Oberndorf near Salzburg"); "First Performance – Oberndorf, 1818" ("It was the 24th of December of the year 1818")
  2. Silent Night Society (Stille Nacht Gesellschaft), "Oberndorf" (the Society's page on the town), "Local Community – Oberndorf City", paragraph 1 ("The separation took place in 1816 through the Treaty of Munich. Oberndorf came to Austria and became an independent municipality.")
  3. Library of Congress catalog record sm1857.620520, "The one horse open sleigh", Fields: title "The one horse open sleigh"; contributor "Pierpont, J."; published "Boston : Oliver Ditson, 1857."
  4. Christopher Klein, "8 Things You Might Not Know About 'Jingle Bells'", History.com (published December 16, 2016; updated December 11, 2025), Item 3, "'Jingle Bells' wasn't the song's original name": "When the holiday ditty was first printed by a Boston music publishing house in 1857, it was released under the title 'The One Horse Open Sleigh.'"