Wadsworth first wrote the poem "Christmas Bells" on Christmas Day in 1863. It was first published in February 1865 in Our Young Folks, a juvenile magazine published by Ticknor and Fields.
In 1872, John Baptiste Calkin arranged five of the seven stanzas to his own tune "Waltham", resulting in the hymn "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day". Other composers have written tunes for this song, most notably Johnny Marks's 1950s popular rendition, and Joseph Mainzer's 1845 tune "Mainzer" is also commonly used as a musical setting for this work.
Original, 7 stanzas
Adapted, 5 stanzas
