- Joined
- Jan 8, 2012
A lot of what we know as traditional Christmas music was around during the Civil War. I thought it would be fun to collect everyone's favorite period tunes--they can be from before the war or during the war, but not after (OK, shortly thereafter works, too
).
“I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day”
This song is based on a poem born of the anguish of a father (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) over his son (Charles Longfellow) being wounded in the war. See this Sons of the Union Veterans Facebook post for the full story:
To kick it off, here are three that emerged in that time frame that are still around today:
“Jingle Bells” (originally published as “The One Horse Open Sleigh”)
“Up on the Housetop”
For an interesting article on the Civil War history of these two tunes, see the recent Washington Post article "The forgotten Civil War history of two of our favorite Christmas carols"
What other Civil War-era Christmas music do you enjoy? Links to performances welcome!

“I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day”
This song is based on a poem born of the anguish of a father (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) over his son (Charles Longfellow) being wounded in the war. See this Sons of the Union Veterans Facebook post for the full story:
To kick it off, here are three that emerged in that time frame that are still around today:
“Jingle Bells” (originally published as “The One Horse Open Sleigh”)
“Up on the Housetop”
For an interesting article on the Civil War history of these two tunes, see the recent Washington Post article "The forgotten Civil War history of two of our favorite Christmas carols"
What other Civil War-era Christmas music do you enjoy? Links to performances welcome!
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