This Morning: Eamonn Holmes has ‘awkward’ exchange with schoolteacher over ‘wrong’ lyrics to ‘Jingle Bells’

‘That’s wrong, teacher,’ presenter claims. ‘She’s been teaching these children wrong’

This Morning presenter Eamonn Holmes has left some viewers cringing following an awkward encounter with a schoolteacher.

On the long-running ITV chat series, Holmes interviewed a schoolteacher, and accused her of getting the lyrics to the popular Christmas carol “Jingle Bells” wrong.

The presenter and co-presenter Ruth Langsford were joined on This Morning by a teacher from west London’s Wormhholt Park Primary School and a group of children, singing a rendition of “Jingle Bells”. 

Before they began to sing, however, Holmes sought to find out which lyrics they intended to sing.

The teacher responded that they would be singing: “Oh what fun it is to ride on a one-horse open sleigh / Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.”

Holmes, however, insisted that the lyric contained the word “hey”, instead of “oh”.

“That’s wrong, teacher,” he said. “She’s been teaching these children wrong.”

Langsford tried to argue that the lyrics were fine, but Holmes reiterated that the teacher had got the words wrong.

On social media, viewers posted their reactions to the strange encounter, with many arguing that the exchange was unnecessarily “awkward”.

“Let it go Eamonn, does it really matter? How awkward,” wrote one viewer.

“Not impressed that he tried to spar with a teacher in front of her class on live TV,” wrote someone else. Another wrote that he had “belittled” the teacher.

Others, however, agreed with Holmes, with many saying that the correct lyric was in fact “hey”.

“We don't mind which one you say, we are just immensely proud of our Year 2 children and their fantastic teacher,” wrote the school. “Many thanks to  @thismorning for the invitation #singandsign #jinglebells.”