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'Jingle Bells' Origin Fuels Holiday Spat

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Seccomb House, which later became the Simpson Tavern, Medford. Illustration by Nestor Redondo, 1992. (Courtesy of the Medford Historical Society)
Seccomb House, which later became the Simpson Tavern, Medford. Illustration by Nestor Redondo, 1992. (Courtesy of the Medford Historical Society)

The catchy holiday tune "Jingle Bells" probably rolls off your tongue whether you celebrate Christmas or not.

As it turns out, the song has quite a storied past and is at the center of a passionate controversy involving two cities determined to stick to their, well, bells.

Those two cities, one in Massachusetts and one in Georgia, claim the song as their own.

WBUR's Sean Bowditch decided to take a closer look at the controversy and started in the city of Medford.

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This program aired on December 23, 2011.

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