Catchy Christmas song ‘Jingle Bells’ began life as a pick-up song

'Jingle Bells' is one of the most Christmassy of songs – but if you think about the lyrics, there actually isn't any mention of the festival at all. — freeimageslive.co.uk

This is the first holiday season where my boy is cognisant enough, at two years and nine months old, to actually register a lot of it. The Christmas tree and all the decorations, the idea of Santa Claus – although he assures me that if he has to be a good boy to get gifts, he’d rather not get gifts – and festive songs.

The songs might be his favourite. In no small part because we’ve been putting him to sleep using a rendition of Silent Night ever since he was born. This is not because we’re some kind of Yuletide fanatics, it’s just one of the random songs on his baby monitor that we would play as white noise.