John Pierpont "Autographs of Freedom" (1853). John Pierpont did not write the song "Jingle Bells" as erroneously claimed by Robert Fulghum in his collection of essays It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It (1989). "Jingle Bells" was composed by his son James Lord Pierpont, who lived in Savannah, Georgia, and who was a Confederate soldier during the Civil War, composing songs for the Confederate States of America, including "Our Battle Flag", "Strike for the South", and "We Conquer or Die". John Pierpont was also the maternal grandfather of financier J. Pierpont Morgan. For detailed genealogical information, see 20>16232 in
Did Christians Steal Christmas? Did Christians Steal Christmas? Synopsis The booklet is divided into three sections. Part 1: “The timing of Christmas” notes that not all churches today celebrate Christmas on 25 December, that most scholars only attempt an approximate date for the year of Jesus’ birth, and that the Christmas celebrations superseded similar pagan festivities. Part 2: “The Christmas Story” analyses aspects of the Christmas story itself (the Virgin Birth, the Star of Bethlehem, the Three Kings, the Stable at Bethlehem and the Massacre of the Innocents) by reference to earlier pagan myths. It also looks critically at the attempts of Christian apologists