Montana’s #1 Christmas Song Is a Little Basic But Not Annoying

I come from a family of musicians. Every Thanksgiving we’d all get out whichever instrument we played and form a band. Usually, we were a little lopsided—more rhythm section than brass—but we found songs that we could all play together, and more often than not, they were Christmas carols.

To make it as easy as possible, they were usually songs that didn’t require a lot of transposing or complicated harmonies, so we ended up playing the most common, maybe least interesting of Christmas songs. But one that we rarely played because it was just too basic was Jingle Bells.

I admit, I was a precocious kid, and "Jingle Bells" was for “beginning players.” I'd also heard "Batman smells..." one too many times. Once the other grandkids and I knew how to play scales and more than one octave, we insisted on songs like “Silent Night” or “Joy to the World.” I admit now that we probably could have done something interesting with "Jingle Bells," but like I said, I was a snob.

Montana's #1 Christmas Song

Fate may be laughing at me a little bit because FinanceBuzz just published the top Christmas songs in every state and wouldn’t you know, Montana’s number one Christmas song is "Jingle Bells."

We're not the only ones. Kansas and North Carolina also really like "Jingle Bells." Also, "Jingle Bells" did not end up on the "Top 10 Most Annoying Christmas Songs" list. The top honor on that list goes to "All I Want for Christmas is You" which, interestingly, was also the most popular song in 10 different states, and the most popular overall.

For what it's worth, technically, "Jingle Bells" isn't a Christmas Carol. It's a Thanksgiving song. I guess my family should have played it together after all.