there's something about hearing those church bells in late december here in chilly cambridge

massachusetts that makes me think of christmas i agree the peel of the bells seems to pierce the cold

and warm the heart it reminds me of that leon song you know ring the bells that still can ring

forget your perfect

offering. There is a crack in everything, and that's how the light gets in. Thank God we have

poets like Leonard Cohen. Thank God indeed. Sometimes we need the poets to express what we're all feeling.

Now, seeing this is our Christmas special, I thought we'd come to Cambridge to hear the bells

that inspired one of the greatest poets, not just in New England history, but American history.

This is the old stomping ground for none other than Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Oh, he's a giant for sure. His name is sacred in Massachusetts.

So one of his poems was turned into a Christmas song.

Maybe not the most famous Christmas song of all time,

but some of the holiday giants like Burr Lives and Frank Sinatra

included their own versions of the song and their holiday albums.

And that modern group, the Civil Wars,

have a haunting version of the song that's really becoming one of my new favorites.

But the lyrics, most of us have heard,

leave out the darkest part of the story. Well, there's always an undertone of darkness in Christmas, isn't there? Yeah, I've been

saying that for a while. You need to get into a dark place if you're going to see the light.

So we've come to Cambridge at Christmas to explore the story behind Longfellow's poem,

I heard the bells on Christmas Day.

If you're still overpaying for wireless, it's time to say yes to saying no.

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