Snowy Sleigh Bells

"Hark how the bells, sweet silver bells
All seem to say, throw cares away
Christmas is here, bringing good cheer
To young and old, meek and the bold..."

— "Carol of the Bells"

One good way to recognize winter-themed music is the presence of jingly sleigh bells (also known as jingle bells) in the soundtrack.

These little bells were first used on horse-drawn vehicles to warn bypassers about the arrival of the carriage and most importantly the sleighs (hence the name), as the vehicle would otherwise make no sound at all. The relation between these bells and sleighs might be the origin of this trope and is the premise of the most famous Christmas song of them all: Jingle Bells.

Incredibly common in Slippy-Slidey Ice World levels in video games, as well as in Christmas Songs. Sometimes also featured in more grim winter-based settings where it's more likely to evoke a dogsled than Santa Claus.

For more musical location associations, see Jungle Jazz, Waltz on Water, Steel Drums and Sunshine, and Regional Riff.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Love Live!, sleigh bells are heard in the song "Snow Halation", which ties into its overall theme of Snow Means Love.
• One Piece: Twinkle Twinkle, an Image Song sung by Chopper, has these, mostly during the intro and outro and during the chorus.

Films — Animation

• Santa's sleigh bells become a minor plot point near the end of The Polar Express — Hero Boy, who has been struggling with his faith in Santa, can't hear the bells until he decides to believe, at which point he can hear them.

Live-Action TV

• The Christmas episode of Le cśur a ses raisons has sleigh bells during the interludes between the "Christmas at the Montgomery's'' segments. The Christmas episode of "Medical Drama" also features sleigh bells each time Brett says the word "Christmas".

Music

• A lot of Christmas Songs use sleigh bells as a part of their instrumentation, with "Jingle Bells" as the prime example.
• Evoked in the opening of "Sleigh Ride": "Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting-tingling, too..." Also a big feature of the original orchestral version by Leroy Anderson.
• Sufjan Stevens not only uses sleigh bells on many songs from his Songs for Christmas box set, but also writes about them in the liner notes, mentioning that playing them properly isn't as easy as you'd think.
• Downplayed in the Norwegian Christmas song/parody "Julekveld i skogen" by Rolf Just Nilsen, where sleigh bells are only used as part of the instrumentation in the verses that describe someone arriving in a sleigh.
• Evoked in "Winter Wonderland" with the rhyme "Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? / In the lane snow is glistening".
• Gordon Lightfoot's "Song for a Winter's Night" is punctuated with these.
• Many of the winter-themed songs by Matthew Villani feature these, and not just the happy Christmas-themed ones, either. In works meant to evoke a blistering chill and a frozen landscape, the sleigh bells only serve to enhance the grim and icy atmosphere rather than evoke anything festive or cheerful.
• Classical music gives us the second movement of Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé suite: Troika ride is an evocation of a horse-drawn Russian sleigh charging through the snow. this is so evocative of Winter - the orchestral percussionist is kept busy ringing sleigh bells throughout - that it has become synonymous with Christmas.
  • Greg Lake plundered Troika as the main theme for his seasonal hit, I Believe in Father Christmas.
• Used in "Little Saint Nick" by The Beach Boys, unsurprisingly. But Brian Wilson loved sleigh bells and used them in a bunch of non-Christmassy Beach Boys songs as well.
• "New York's a Lonely Town", a 1965 hit by Beach Boys soundalikes The Trade Winds about a surfer bemoaning having to spend the winter in the snowy Big Apple, prominently features these.
• Some parts of Ava Max's "Christmas Without You" use sleigh bells.

Pinball

• Elvira's House of Horrors plays these during the Santa Claus Conquers the Martians mode.

Tabletop Games

• The digital implementation of Ticket to Ride unsurprisingly has very prominent sleigh bells in the music playing when having a game on the Nordic Countries based on Scandinavia.

Video Games

• 100% Orange Juice!: Aru's theme has a lot of sleigh bells in it, fitting for an apprentice of Santa Claus.
• Animal Crossing
  • The Christmas theme from the very first Animal Crossing game makes a heavy use of sleigh bells. The remixes from the song from City Folk and New Leaf do as well, but with less emphasis on the bells.
  • Several hourly music tracks include sleigh bells when it is snowing.
  • So does the theme that plays during Snowman's bingo.
• Banjo-Kazooie has sleigh bells in all wintery themes.
• The theme that plays during Bayonetta's last-minute Christmas shopping spree in Bayonetta 2 is rhythmed by sleigh bells.
• In Big Fun in Furbyland, the remix of Johannes Brahms' "Hungarian Dance n°5" that plays during the wintry second level on In the Clouds has discrete snowbells rythming the song.
• The snowy theme from Cat Quest features very prominent sleigh bells.
• "Tire and Ice" from Crash Tag Team Racing has faint sleigh bells, but they're mostly drowned out by everything else going on in the song.
• The frozen Forest Folly's track "Freezy Breezie" in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze has some discrete sleigh bells ringing throughout the song.
• The Christmas level on Doodle Jump has sleigh bells playing in the background.
• In Everybody Edits Universe, the music used around Christmastime named "Christmas Quest" uses sleigh bells to invoke the sound of Christmas.
• Harmoknight has "A Frosty Reception & Winter Wonderland." The world it plays in is even named "Sleighbell Slopes", and some of the enemies there are even shaped like sleigh bells!
• Sleigh bells ring each time the player freezes a Zoog in Iggle Pop!.
• Kirby series:
  • Frozen Hillside's track from Kirby Air Ride has a sleigh bell ring three times in the background before a Beat, followed by the bell ringing three more times.
  • Most of the levels in the well-named Snow Land in Kirby's Epic Yarn have a soundtrack heavily featuring sleigh bells.
  • Snowy Zone from Kirby Mass Attack has a beat made up of sleigh bell rings that have been cut in half to add to the song's pace.
  • Snowball Scuffle, from Kirbys Return To Dreamland, as well as its remix from Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, makes sure to start off with sleigh bells to set the mood for the ice level.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The ice theme of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures is a remix of the normal overworld thing with only one thing to differentiate it: sleigh bells, a staple of magical elf culture.
  • The icy Anouki Village's theme from The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks features jingle bells in some segments.
  • Faint sleigh bells can be heard in the background of the Ice Ruins track from The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Some also ring when Dharkstare summons icy satellites.
  • The cheery theme played during the ice bowling mini-game in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has upbeat sleigh bells.
• Metroid Prime has the icy region of Phendrana Drifts. The music for the region features sleigh bells alongside an Ethereal Choir and a chilly piano.
• Several songs playing in the frozen Powdered Peaks in Miitopia feature sleigh bells.
• Mother series:
  • The beautiful theme played in the wintry Snowman in Earthbound Beginnings has sleigh bells playing through the track. It's remix from Super Smash Bros. Brawl kept them as well.
  • Earthbound has the theme music for Winters, where Jeff and his father reside.
• Pikmin:
  • Pikmin 2: The theme playing in the snowy Valley of Repose features sleigh bells as its percussion instrument.
  • ''Hey! Pikmin: In Snowfall Field's third level, Olimar and the Flying Pikmin snowboard down a mountain: each time a Pikmin breaks a layer of the giant snowball that tumbles down with them, sleigh bells ring.

• Pokémon X and Y: The music that plays in the icy Snowbelle City features a sleigh bells in at the beginning and the middle of the song.
• Skies of Arcadia has sleigh bells added to the dynamic overworld soundtrack when in the Lands of Ice region.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Sleigh bells are pretty rare in the series in comparison to the number of stages themed on cold and ice over the years, more often opting for chimes or electric guitar. However, they do exist:
  • Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island: The obligatory ice world in this game was called Diamond Dust, and the Saturn and PC versions of the game had light, jingling bells as part of their soundtrack.
  • Sonic Adventure has "Snowy Mountain," though it's not used to set the rhythm and is mainly there for flavor.
  • The bells can be heard in "Twinkle Snow Zone Act 1" in Sonic Advance 3 but is absent in Acts 2 and 3.
  • In Sonic Unleashed, sleigh bells can be heard in Holoska's hub area the the daytime. They're absent at night.
  • Used as the primary percussion instrument in Sonic Lost World's Frozen Factory stages, as can be heard in "Frozen Factory Zone 1" and "Snowball Waltz."
• The Atlantis Deep-Sea Cruise is a polar fishing spot in the Streetpass Mii Plaza game Ultimate Angler, and its music features discrete jingle bells in the background.
• Used very often in the Super Mario Bros. franchise:
  • Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker frosty levels have a wintery remix of the game's main theme featuring sleigh bells. The opening segment of Blizzard on the Snow Express's track features some sleigh bells as well.
  • The music playing during the frigid Secret Mine's boss fight in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon features rather discrete sleigh bells as percussion.
  • The depressing theme from the destroyed, Christmas-themed Hollijolli Village from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time features sleigh bells.
  • The level themes for Gleam Glacier in Super Princess Peach uses joyful Bells extensively in its main instrumentation.
  • The theme for the frozen Frappe Snowland and Sherbet Land from Mario Kart 64 has sleigh bells throughout the entire track.
  • The Mario Kart 8 remix of the GCN Sherbet Land racetrack has joyful sleigh bells ringing rhythmically through the song. The Animal Crossing winter music gets the same treatment.
  • The theme that plays on the Chilly Waters board in Mario Party 3 has sleigh bells ringing throughout the entire song.
  • Basically every snow-related track from the New Super Mario Bros. series have sleigh bells.
  • Fahr Outpost's theme in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door features extremely prominent sleigh bells.
  • So do most of the musics playing during the icy World 4 in Paper Mario: Sticker Star.
  • Snow Land, from Super Mario 3D Land and its remix from Super Mario 3D World are very upbeat wintery tracks, and sleigh bells are the only percussion instrument that is used.
  • Freezy Flake Galaxy's theme from Super Mario Galaxy 2 has sleigh bells making sporadic appearances throughout the song.
  • While all three nitro battle tracks in Mario Kart 7 have the same melody, the music playing on Sherbet Rink has added sleigh bells.
  • Sleigh bells ring rhythmically through the entire song playing in the frigid Shiveria in Super Mario Odyssey. When outside of town, where there is almost no music, distant sleigh bells can be heard.
  • This trope applies to the snow theme in all of the game styles of Super Mario Maker 2, including the new chiptune compositions for the 8- and 16-bit styles, as well as the remixes in the level making mode.
• The music playing on the frosty Icicle Mountain stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee, originating from Ice Climber, features very prominent sleigh bells.
• The Christmas theme from Tomodachi Life is punctuated by sleigh bells.
• Wario Land: Shake It! has these in the Slipshod Slopes theme, as well as the faster Freezing Fields one.
• Sleigh bells are used in the Penguin Slide theme, the Snowball Fight theme and the Core Luge theme from the Wii Fit series, since all these activities are heavily related to winter and ice.
• Yoshi's Woolly World's A Little Light Snowfall, as well as the frozen World 5's map theme both are rhythmed by jingle bells.

Web Video

• Video game music analyst Jake Butineau has a video discussing this trope: "Why I Hate Winter Level Music." He argues that the "Instant winter, just add sleigh bells!" approach has been overused to the point of cliche, and feels that VG musicians are ignoring all the other ways they could evoke the mood of winter.
  Jake: This is called a sleigh bell. You may have heard it in every Christmas song, ever.
• The parody Christmas Song "Communist Christmas" by Rathergood features sleigh bells.

Webcomics

• The musical comic Ice World from Brawl in the Family is a "celebration" of Slippy Slidey Ice Worlds which is, you guessed it, rhythmed by sleigh bells.

Western Animation

• Heard a lot during the Danny Phantom Christmas Episode The Fright before Christmas.
• Used in an eyecatch for the South Park episode "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics", along with a title card apparently intended to parody Star Wars.
• Spongebob Squarepants:
  • The opening of the Christmas Who? is a special, carol version of the regular opening, with very prominent sleigh bells.
  • As one could expect, Wonderland of Snow, the theme playing during the title card of Snowball Effect'', as well as the theme playing during the montage of a snow-covered Bikini Bottom both feature very prominent sleigh bells.

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