Jingle Bell Pop / John Seabrook

On Christmas Eve, 1818, in a small Austrian village, a local Catholic priest and a church organist composed a Christmas carol that changed the course of holiday music forever. Exactly two hundred years later, it's not the holiday season until you've heard "Silent Night" in the car, at the store and on TV - all in the same day.

In Jingle Bell Pop, John Seabrook, acclaimed author of The Song Machine, takes us deep inside the holiday music business. We go behind the scenes to meet some of the producers, songwriters and recording artists responsible for the timeless tunes we hear on repeat between Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. Tracing the history of holiday classics, from hymns and carols to "All I Want for Christmas Is You," Seabrook reveals how some of the most popular - and profitable - songs were made, why they endure and what makes the "Christmas Canon" so tough to crack.