The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)

"The Twelve Days of Christmas"
Song
Language	English; may be French in origin
Published	c. 1780
Composer(s)	Traditional with additions by Frederic Austin

This article is about the popular song. For the holiday period from Christmas to Epiphany, see Twelve days of Christmas.

The Twelve Days of Christmas is an English Christmas carol (Roud # 68) which enumerates a series of increasingly grandiose gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas. Although it was first published in England in 1780, textual evidence may indicate the song is French in origin. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 68.

It is a cumulative song, in that each verse is built on the previous verses. It culminates on the twelfth day, when the gifts are 12 Drummers Drumming, 11 Pipers Piping, 10 Lords a-Leaping, 9 Ladies Dancing, 8 Maids a-Milking, 7 Swans a-Swimming, 6 Geese a-Laying, 5 Gold Rings, 4 Colly Birds (often given as "Calling Birds"), 3 French Hens, 2 Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

It has been one of the most popular and most-recorded Christmas songs throughout the past century.

Music origin

The earliest well-known performance of the song was by English scholar James O. Halliwell in 1842, and he published a version in 4th edition The Nursery Rhymes of England (1846), collected principally from 'oral tradition'. The song had become traditional as early as the 16th century.

In the early 20th century, English composer Frederic Austin wrote an arrangement in which he added his melody from "Five golden rings" onwards which has since become standard. The copyright to this arrangement was registered in 1909 and is still active by its owners, Novello & Co. Limited.

Origin

The twelve days in the song are the twelve days from the day after Christmas (December 26) (Boxing Day or St. Stephen's Day, as being the feast day of St. Stephen Protomartyr) to the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6, or the Twelfth Day).

Although the specific origins of the chant are not known, it possibly began as a Twelfth Night "memories-and-forfeits" game, in which a leader recited a verse, each of the players repeated the verse, the leader added another verse, and so on until one of the players made a mistake, with the player who erred having to pay a penalty, such as offering up a kiss or a sweet.

This is how the game is offered up in its earliest known printed version, in the children's book Mirth without Mischief (c. 1780) published in England, which 100 years later Lady Gomme, a collector of folktales and rhymes, described playing every Twelfth Day night before eating mince pies and twelfth cake.

Twelfth Night is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking."

The song apparently is older than the printed version, though it is not known how much older. Textual evidence indicates that the song was not English in origin, but French, though it is considered an English carol. Three French versions of the song are known.

If the "partridge in a pear tree" of the English version is to be taken literally, then it seems as if the chant comes from France, since the red-legged (or French) partridge, which perches in trees more frequently than the native common (or grey) partridge, was not successfully introduced into England until about 1770.

Structure

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is a cumulative song, meaning that each verse is built on top of the previous verses. There are twelve verses, each describing a gift given by "my true love" on one of the twelve days of Christmas.

The first verse runs:

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me

a partridge in a pear tree

The second verse:

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me

Two turtle doves

and a partridge in a pear tree

The third verse begins to show some metrical variance, as explained below:

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me

Three French hens

two turtle doves

and a partridge in a pear tree

...and so forth, until the last verse:

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

Twelve drummers drumming

eleven pipers piping

ten lords a' leaping

nine ladies dancing

eight maids a' milking

seven swans a' swimming

six geese a' laying

five gold rings

four calling birds

three French hens

two turtle doves

and a partridge in a pear tree

This version features variant lyrics, as explained below.

The time signature of this song is not constant, unlike most popular music. The introductory lines, such as "On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me", are made up of two 4/4 bars, while most of the lines naming gifts receive one 3/4 bar per gift with the exception of "Five gold(en) rings", which receives two 4/4 bars, "Two turtle doves" getting a 4/4 bar with "And a" on its 4th beat and "Partridge in a pear tree" getting two 4/4 bars of music. In most versions, a 4/4 bar of music immediately follows "Partridge in a pear tree." "On the" is found in that bar on the 4th (pickup) beat for the next verse. The successive bars of 3 for the gifts surrounded by bars of 4 give the song its hallmark "hurried" quality.

One peculiar aspect about this song is how the second through fourth verses use a different melody for the second through fourth items than in the fifth through 12th verses. Before the song gets to the "five golden rings," the melody, using solfege, is "sol re mi fa re" for the fourth through second items, as later found in the last verses for the 12th through sixth items. In the sixth through 12th verses, the melody for the fourth through second items is as shown above in the insert.

Variations

There are many variations of this song in which the last four objects are arranged in a different order (for example — twelve lords a-leaping, eleven ladies (or dames a-) dancing, ten pipers piping, nine drummers drumming). At least one version has "ten fiddlers fiddling," and another has "nine ladies waiting." Still another version alters the fourth gift to "four mockingbirds."

The authoritative, traditional version of the chant in England appears in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, as follows:

The twelfth day of Christmas, | My true love sent to me | Twelve lords a-leaping, | Eleven ladies dancing, | Ten pipers piping, | Nine drummers drumming, | Eight maids a-milking, | Seven swans a-swimming, | Six geese a-laying, | Five gold rings, | Four colly birds, | Three French hens, | Two turtle doves, and | A partridge in a pear tree.

There are some regional variants of the verb in the opening line of each verse. In the United States the true love "gave" the gifts to the singer. In the British version, the true love "sent" the gifts to the singer.

It has been suggested by a number of sources over the years that the pear tree is in fact supposed to be perdrix, French for partridge and pronounced per-dree, and was simply copied down incorrectly when the oral version of the game was transcribed. The original line would have been: "A partridge, une perdrix."

Some misinterpretations have crept into the English-language version over the years.

The fourth day's gift is often stated as four calling birds but originally was four colly birds, using another word for a blackbird. The fifth day's gift of golden rings refers not to jewellery but to ring-necked birds such as the ring-necked pheasant.

When these errors are corrected, the pattern of the first seven gifts all being birds is restored.

There is a version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" that is still sung in Sussex in which the four colly birds are replaced by canaries.

In Australia, a number of versions are sung, all of which replace the traditional gifts with items (mainly native animals) more likely to be found in that country.

A minor variant is the singing of "golden" rather than "gold" rings, to avoid having to stretch "gold" into two syllables ("go-old").

This song has also been sung by the Muppets.

France

In the west of France the piece is known as a song, "La foi de la loi," and is sung "avec solennite," the sequence being: a good stuffing without bones, two breasts of veal, three joints of beef, four pigs' trotters, five legs of mutton, six partridges with cabbage, seven spitted rabbits, eight plates of salad, nine dishes for a chapter of canons, ten full casks, eleven beautiful full-breasted maidens, and twelve musketeers with their swords.

Scotland

In Scotland, early in the 19th century, the recitation began: "The king sent his lady on the first Yule day, | A popingo-aye [parrot]; | Wha learns my carol and carries it away?" The succeeding gifts were three partridges, three plovers, a goose that was grey, three starlings, three goldspinks, a bull that was brown, three ducks a-merry laying, three swans a-merry swimming, an Arabian baboon, three hinds a-merry hunting, three maids a-merry dancing, three stalks o' merry corn.

Meaning

The meaning of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," if it has any, has yet to be satisfactorily explained. "Suggestions have been made that the gifts have significance, as representing the food or sport for each month of the year. Importance [certainly has] long been attached to the Twelve Days, when, for instance, the weather on each day was carefully observed to see what it would be in the corresponding month of the coming year. Nevertheless, whatever the ultimate origin of the chant, it seems probable [that] the lines that survive today both in England and France are merely an irreligious travesty."

A bit of modern folklore claims that the song's lyrics were written as a "catechism song" to help young Catholics learn their faith, at a time when practicing Catholicism was discouraged in England (1558 until 1829). There is no substantive primary evidence supporting this claim, and no evidence that the claim is historical, or "anything but a fanciful modern day speculation."

In fact, variations in lyrics provide evidence against the "catechism song" origin. For example, the four Gospels often are described as the "four calling birds," when in fact the phrase "calling birds" is a modern (probably 20th century) phonetic misunderstanding of "colly birds" (blackbirds).

Christmas Price Index

Main article: Christmas Price Index

Since 1984, the cumulative costs of the items mentioned in the song have been used as a tongue-in-cheek economic indicator. This custom began with and is maintained by PNC Bank. Two pricing charts are created, referred to as the Christmas Price Index and The True Cost of Christmas. The former is an index of the current costs of one set of each of the gifts given by the True Love to the singer of the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas." The latter is the cumulative cost of all the gifts with the repetitions listed in the song. The people mentioned in the song are hired, not purchased. The total costs of all goods and services for the 2009 Christmas Price Index is $21,465.56. The original 1984 cost was $12,623.10.

Parodies and burlesques

1955

• On the Twelfth Day... (1955)—also known as On the Twelfth Day of Christmas (USA video box title) —is a short film (23 min.) from the UK, in which a proper Edwardian lady (Miss Tilly, portrayed by Wendy Toye, who also directed the film) patiently endures the ever-increasing disruption to her quiet household when her true love (Truelove, portrayed by David O’Brien) sends her all the items from the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." The film was produced by George K. Arthur.

1958

• Green Chri$tma$ is a piece of audio theater written and performed by Stan Freberg and Daws Butler and released by Capitol Records in 1958 (catalog number F 4097). Mr. Scrooge (Freberg), the head of an unnamed advertising agency, has gathered a group of clients to discuss tying their products into Christmas. One attendee, Bob Cratchit (Butler), wants to resist tying his spice company into Christmas, preferring to send Christmas cards with a simple message of "Peace on Earth." Scrooge extols the virtues of making money off of Christmas, and Cratchit counters by reminding Scrooge "whose birthday we're celebrating." The piece is a scathing indictment of the commercialization of Christmas, with references of Christmas-themed advertising by Coca-Cola and Marlboro cigarettes, among others. The names of the characters are taken from A Christmas Carol in Prose by Charles Dickens, as is one of the products "advertised" ("Tyn-E-Tim Chestnuts"). Green Chri$tma$ also contains a parody of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and an original song by Freberg, "Christmas Comes but Once a Year."

1958

• At Brown University a Latin Carol Service, held completely in Latin, is sponsored by the Classics Department each December. At this event, the women's a capella singing group The Chattertocks of Brown University sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" entirely in Latin. For this service, “Duodecem Dies Natalis” was translated into Latin by Eunice Burr Couch and, for more than 50 years, has been performed by the group listed in the program as “Grex Chattertockarum,” literally, the "Herd of Chattertocks."

1963

• Allan Sherman recorded—or at least released—two different versions of "The Twelve Gifts of Christmas," in which the gifts are tacky early 1960s items, such as a cheaply-made Japanese transistor radio. Sherman wrote and performed his version of the classic Christmas carol on a 1963 TV special that was taped well in advance of the holiday. Warner Brothers rushed out a 45 RPM version in early December. The "A" side was the song, as recorded for the TV show. An edited version of "The Twelve Gifts" was included on a later album and, in later years, it turned up on an amazing number of compilation albums and CDs, often identified as "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Despite the title, this version has only eleven gifts. On the twelfth day of Christmas, he decides to exchange the eleven previous gifts for other items.

1973

• Sears, Roebuck & Co. and the The Walt Disney Company used Walt Disney Pictures' adapted character Winnie-the-Pooh for a "Twelve Days of Christmas"–themed coloring book in 1973. It included such items as "five acrobats," "two pogo sticks," and "a hunny pot inna hollow tree."

1978

• In the 1978 Willy The Kid Book 2 by Leo Baxendale (creator of The Bash Street Kids featured in The Beano, a variation of the song is told with a number of dark twists in the plot finishing with the Postman bringing "Her True Love In A Pear Tree" on the 13th Day.

1979

• The Muppets' 1979 version of the song, accompanied by John Denver, employs the normal lyrics, with the humor coming from the Muppets' unique twist, such as Miss Piggy's continual overplaying of the "Five gold rings" line. The original version, performed on John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together, a holiday television special (5 December 1979), differs from the version on the album of the same name, with a slightly different line-up of Muppets and a running gag of Fozzie Bear forgetting his line several times, eventually being coached by Denver to chime in at the right time.

1981

• A Maori / New Zealand version, titled "A Pukeko in a Ponga Tree," written by Kingi Matutaera Ihaka, appeared as a picture book and cassette recording in 1981.

1982

• On the late-night sketch-comedy program Second City TV in 1982, the Canadian-rustic characters Bob & Doug McKenzie—Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, respectively—released a version on the SCTV spin-off album Great White North, in which the gifts included eight comic books, seven pack of smokes, six packs of two-four ["two-four" is Canadian slang for a case of 24 beer; it is common in Canada for "beer" to represent both individual and multiple servings], five golden tuques, four pounds of back bacon, three French toast, two turtlenecks, and a beer. (They did not get past the eighth day. Bob wanted to include doughnuts on the ninth, tenth, or eleventh day.)

• Frank Kelly, the Irish actor, singer, and writer, released the parody, "Christmas Countdown," by Hugh Leonard, as a single (1982) and on the album, Frank Kelly's Christmas Countdown (Rego Irish Records & Tapes, Inc., 16 April 1995), available as both a CD and an audiocassette. The single version reached #8 on the Irish Singles Chart in 1982 and peaked at #38 on the UK Independent Singles Charts in 1984. This humoresque tells the story of an Irish man, Gobnait O'Lúnasa, who writes 12 successive letters to a woman named Nuala, who supposedly sent him each of the gifts mentioned in the song. The birds and characters (maids, lords, pipers, etc.) wreak havoc in the house where he lives with his mother. In his first letter, Gobnait's is thankful for the partridge in a pear tree, but he gets angrier and angrier and ends up desperately insulting Nuala.

1987

• "The Twelve Pains of Christmas" is a parody of the song performed by Seattle, Washington, radio personality Bob Rivers, in which the litany of each "thing of Christmas that's such a pain to me" includes "finding a Christmas tree," "sending Christmas cards," "facing my in-laws," "finding parking spaces," and so forth. The song was released on the album, Twisted Christmas (Atlantic / WEA, 1987).

1990

• The cast of Twin Peaks recorded a version of the song that was broadcast on radio stations across the country at the time but was only made commercially available on record in Los Angeles. Cast members Dana Ashbrook (Bobby), Jack Nance (Pete), Kyle MacLachlan (Cooper), Kimmy Robertson (Lucy), Frank Silva (Bob), and Robert Bauer (Johnny) sang verses about different items and people in the town and related to the show such as jelly donuts, cherry pies, Laura Palmer's secret diary, the one-armed man, the midget from another place, and even Laura Palmer's corpse ("On the first day of Christmas..a body...dead...wrapped in plastic").

1992

• The song was heard on the radio in It's Christmastime Again Charlie Brown and stopped when Sally Brown turned it off.

1993

• The Twelve Days of Christmas (TV 1993) which aired on NBC, is narrated by a partridge. This charming animated tale explains "the lengthy and confusing" Christmas carol of the same name through the following plot. The bold and brave Sir Carolboomer (voiced by Phil Hartman) loves the melancholy Princess Silverbell. In order to win her heart, he has squire Hollyberry (also voiced by Phil Hartman) steals what he thinks is her Christmas list, but what actually turns out to be the answers to the King's crossword puzzle. Sir Carolboomer enlists his squire, Hollyberry, to find every item on her bizarre list, including a partridge in a pear tree, eight maids a-milking, four calling [sic] birds, and so forth. Each day was sung & sometimes spoofed pop stars (IE: Harry Connick Jr.; 5 golden rings, Michael Jackson; 6 geese a;laying, Elvis; 10 pipers piping, etc). Each day, the gloomy Princess Silverbell would chase Hollyberry away. After twelve days of gift-giving, the Princess finally smiles when she sees twelve lords a leaping and falls in love, not with Sir Carolboomer, but with the one who actually did the work, the noble Hollyberry. Adapted from a story Romeo Muller had conceived before his death in 1992.

1994

• In 1994, the hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse recorded a short version of the song on the EP Carnival Christmas.

1995

• The 25-minute movie, William Wegman's Fay's Twelve Days of Christmas, reinvents the classic Christmas carol with Wegman's crowd-pleasing dogs. The Weimaraners celebrate the holidays in a unique way. This program has an unusual but very appealing approach to the holiday song. It was originally released on VHS by Warner Home Video (12 September 1995), and later on DVD by Microcinema International (31 October 2006); it was broadcast on HBO in 2006.

1996

• Jeff Foxworthy released the parody, "Redneck 12 Days of Christmas," on his album, Crank It Up: The Music Album (Warner Bros. / WEA, 27 August 1996), available as both a CD and an audiocassette. "Redneck 12 Days of Christmas" charted several times as a single, where it peaked at #18 in 1996, #39 in 1997, and 1998, #37 in 1999, and #35 in 2000. In 2004, a CD single of this song was packaged with Jeff Foxworthy's book, There's No Place Like (a Mobile) Home for the Holidays.

• In an episode of The Magic School Bus, "The Family Holiday Special" (Episode 39, first aired on 25 December 1996) —during a trip to a recycling plant that belongs to Murph (Dolly Parton) —Ms. Valerie Frizzle (Lily Tomlin) activates the bus's un-recycler, taking the class and Murph on a song-filled field trip, in which they sing a parody of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" with the traditional gifts replaced by recyclable objects and "true love" replaced by "teacher." This was the last episode broadcast on PBS (on 25 September 1998).

1997

• Elmo's 12 Days of Christmas by Sarah Albee, illustrated by Maggie Swanson (Little Golden Storybook / Children's Television Workshop, 1997) is another Sesame Street-themed reinterpretation of the "The Twelve Days of Christmas." "Three French friends, two yummy cookies..." Come sing along with Elmo and the others in this cute variation on a Christmas carol classic. In 1999, this book was released as a Sesame Street Jellybean Book, written especially to be read aloud to children from 3–5 years old.

1998

• In 1998, Natalie Cole released a version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," in which she began to parody the song with the ninth day, and sang the last verse (twelfth day) with the total number of gifts for each day (12 lords a-leaping, 22 ladies dancing, 30 pipers piping, etc.).

2001

• In 12 Tiny Christmas Tales (TV 2001), a dulcet-toned grandmother tells three children some unorthodox Yuletide tales in this beautifully bizarre, off-the-wall Christmas cartoon by Bill Plympton. While none of these tales is offensively strange, they do deviate from the standard feel-good fare of the season. Highlights include a happy little ditty about a lovelorn snowman, a hilarious horror-story retelling of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," and the grandmother's unflappability as she rattles off tale after tale after tale. Despite the strangeness, the cartoon maintains a sense of warmth, jollity, and innocence. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" segment involves only days 1–6, primarily featuring birds, who become such a nuisance that the singer decides, after six geese a-laying, to kill all the birds and later eat them for dinner, to the horror of two of the children and the hungry delight of the third.

2002

• In an episode of Comedy Central's animated television series South Park, "Red Sleigh Down" (Episode 96, first aired on 12 December 2002), Jimmy performs the song at the annual tree-lighting ceremony. Due to his stutter, it takes him all episode to finish the song.

2003

• Who Is Stealing the Twelve Days of Christmas? by Martha Freeman (Holiday House, 2003) was inspired by the song. Every Christmas since Alex can remember, his family and neighbors have filled their front yards with decorations from each of the twelve days mentioned in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas," but this year someone is stealing them one by one. Alex is determined to solve this caper, but will he be able to do it in time to save the twelve days of Christmas?

2004

• The Twelve Days of Christmas Eve (TV 2004) was a made-for-TV movie in which Calvin Carter (played by Steven Weber) is a successful business executive who has it all, but neglects those closest to him. On Christmas Eve, all that changes when the sign on his office building falls on him. He awakens in a hospital bed, attended by Angie (played by Molly Shannon), an angel in the guise of a nurse, who informs him know he has twelve days—that is, twelve chances—to get his act together and achieve the "perfect" Christmas Eve, else there will be dire consequences. This movie is a mix of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (song), Groundhog Day (film), and A Christmas Carol.

• On 24 December 2004, LoadingReadyRun (LRR) released the video, 2004 Holiday Special, which featured "The Twelve Geeky Days of Christmas," as sung by the LRR crew, in which the gifts relate to computers and video games.. This parody was written by Graham Stark and Paul Saunders. LoadingReadyRun is an online sketch-comedy group based out of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Every week, this group writes, acts in, and produces a new short film, which it posts on its Web site. The Web site, launched in 2003, was inspired in name and appearance by the Commdore 64 Home Computer System.

2005

• The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming (Henry Holt & Co., 2005) is a riff on the popular holiday song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." This spirited picture book is narrated by a delighted snowman, who receives all sorts of wintry necessities for the first 10 days of winter, beginning on December 21. Slowly, he is bedecked with a red hat, two lovely blue mittens, three fantastic scarves, and so forth. A 2005 Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book.

• In her act, Las Vegas entertainer Fay McKay performed "The Twelve Daze of Christmas," with a different alcoholic drink for nearly each day. She started the song sounding sober and ending up sounding extremely inebriated and disoriented. McKay performed this wild parody of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" throughout her career, which began in 1951, but it was not until 2005 that a film of her performing the song (late in her life) was first released as part of the documentary, Lost Vegas: The Lounge Era.

2007

• In 2007, a YouTube viral video of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" by the undergraduate a cappella group Straight No Chaser included the group's failure to be able to count the 12 days, and interspersed snippets of other songs including "I Have a Little Dreidel" and Toto's "Africa."

2008

• "12 Days of Christmas Sing Along" (DVD 2008) was released by DreamWorks as a bonus feature extra on the Shrek the Halls DVD (released on 4 November 2008). (Shrek the Halls premiered on ABC on 28 November 2007 as an animated TV special.) The short film provides a twist on the famous Christmas song while employing footage from The Madagascar Penguins in A Christmas Caper.

• A program hosted by Tom Arnold, The 12 Days of Redneck Christmas, which takes a look at quirky Christmas traditions, premiered on CMT in 2008. The theme music, of course, is "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

• A Youtube Channel, called Smosh did a parody of the song, "A merry 'gangsta' Christmas" was the name of the parody. In the song they changed the original verse for things related to guns and other objects. Beyond that changed the phrase "My true love sent / gave to me ..." in "My homey got for me ...".

• In Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special, Bubba J stated his brother set Santa Claus on fire, and to rescue him, Bubba J urinated on him, after which his "dumb-ass brother started singin', 'On the first day of Christmas, Santa was on fire..." [laughter, scattered applause]... "and Bubba was a-whizzin' on his head. On the second day of Christmas, Santa said to me, 'imitates muffled, enraged screaming'" [Bubba J, normally] "[idiotic giggle] See, his face was all wrapped up in gauze."

Date Unknown

• "The Cajun Twelve Days of Christmas" is one of several ethnic parodies of the well-known song.

• The 12 Days of Christmas—naughty coupons for couples: "A partridge in a pear tree will be the last thing on your mind when you give and receive coupons from The 12 Days of Christmas naughty coupon book."

• A UK advert for Hellmans Mayonnaise sang the song with modified lyrics.

2009

• In The Office's Christmas episode, Secret Santa, Andy Bernard gives his crush, Erin Hannon, a literal series of gifts following the lyrics of the carol. She is not happy and addresses to the office whoever is her Secret Santa should stop giving these gifts because of injuries caused by the wild animals. The episode concludes with Andy admitting it was he who sent the anonymous gifts leading a parade of twelve marching drummers.

• The Simpsons couch gag for Pranks and Greens had a modified version of this song.

External links

• Free scores of The Twelve Days of Christmas in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)