You know when your ready for Christmas music and it might not be the same time as your friends and family. If you like to get down to some Jingle Bells while you’re serving up some pumpkin pie, then you’re playing the perfect song for the holiday. Jingle Bells was originally written as a Thanksgiving song – NOT a Christmas song.

Originally named ‘The One Horse Open Sleigh’,  James Lord Pierpont composed the song in 1850 for his Thanksgiving Sunday school class.

According to History.com, the jingling bells refer to the New England sleigh races that were popular in the 1800s.