UNIDENTIFIED CHORUS: (Singing) J-I-N-G-L-E bells. SIMON: Ah, jingle bells. Don't worry. Not going to sing along, but I would like to pose a question. How did those bells become a symbol of this ...

But, two of our most playful holiday songs — “Jingle Bells” and “Up on the Housetop” — are products of an even more profound national crisis, the Civil War. While the songs themselves ...