Oh, what fun it is to ride on a Mongolian open sleigh.
Move over, Mariah Carey and Wham! A Dutch DJ has released a modern Christmas carol that has everyone dancing this year.
Combining the traditional Jingle Bells song with a techno beat and Mongolian throat singing, Ummet Ozcan created a catchy hit that has taken social media by storm.
A Dutch-Turkish DJ has everyone bopping their heads to a modernized version of Jingle Bells
Image credits: Ummet Ozcan
Ozcan initially posted a short clip of the song on Instagram to spread holiday cheer—but fans begged for more.
After being flooded with requests to release the full version, he shared the festive music video on December 21, along with the complete track on Spotify.
“This started as a fun idea… and thanks to your insane requests, it turned into a full song and music video,” the Dutch-Turkish DJ explained.
“Hope this brings some warmth and joy in the days leading up to Christmas.”
The carol repeats the lyrics, “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, Oh, what fun it is to ride on a Mongolian open sleigh” over a beat that makes it feel more like a nightclub than a winter wonderland.
The new version combines a catchy techno beat with Mongolian throat singing
Image credits: ummetozcan
One fan joked that, after listening to the song, they didn’t know whether they wanted to go clubbing or Christmas shopping.
“Think I’m doing my housework to this track tomorrow,” someone else shared.
“I’m playing this every Christmas season from now on,” said another.
“My brain did not expect this, but it’s amazing,” admitted someone else.
“When you want to celebrate Christmas and New Year together,” joked an additional fan.
“The elves are rocking to this in the workshop right now. I keep having to remind them to stop dancing and finish up the last of the gift requests!” he wrote.
Jingle Bells was originally titled The One Horse Open Sleigh and had no connection to Christmas
Image credits: ummetozcan
The music video, which has received over 800,000 views, features a group of Mongolian men “singing” the song in a snowy landscape, along with a shot of reindeers pulling a sleigh.
Ozcan explained that it’s “real footage with AI-assisted visuals.”
The star, who grew up in The Netherlands, an epicenter of dance music, has nearly 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
As for the famous carol he chose to remix, it wasn’t originally composed as a Christmas song at all.
When James Lord Pierpont released it in 1857, it was titled The One Horse Open Sleigh. He reportedly wrote it in Medford, Massachusetts, to commemorate the town’s annual sleigh races.
At the time, there were many songs about sleigh-riding, and Pierpoint was likely trying to cash in on the trend, according to Kyna Hamill, director of the College of Arts at Boston University.
The original song told the story of a young couple who crashed their sleigh
Image credits: Ummet Ozcan
The song originally had three verses, including one about a young couple who tip their sleigh in a snowdrift.
“A day or two ago/I thought I’d take a ride/And soon Miss Fannie Bright/Was seated by my side/The horse was mean and lank/Misfortune seemed his lot/He got into a drifted bank/And then we got upsot.”
“Upsot” is an archaic past tense of “upset.”
The main line was inspired by the noise of jingle bells attached to horses’ harnesses, which were used to help avoid collisions in the snow.
Jingle Bells gained popularity with the rise of the radio. In 1943, Bing Crosby recorded the song during the Christmas season, turning into a holiday classic.
Mongolian musicians have previously covered the classic using traditional instruments
Image credits: Ummet Ozcan Ummet Ozcan
The song was also one of the first to be broadcast from space, during a Christmas-themed prank by astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra in 1965.
After telling Mission Control about an object that “looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in a polar orbit,” the astronauts began performing the song using a harmonica and actual jingle bells they had smuggled aboard.
Jingle Bells has been covered by countless artists, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Michael Bublé.
Mongolian cover of Jingle Bells 🎄🐎
[📹 The Altai Band]pic.twitter.com/1HxmDmdPjZ
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) December 8, 2023
While the latest version gave it a modern techno twist, a viral video from 2023 shows a group of Mongolian musicians known as The Altai Band covering the song with traditional musical instruments, right in the middle of the snow.
“This is acceptable Christmas music to me,” one user joked on X
