The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)

"The Twelve Days of Christmas"
Song
Published	c. 1780
Genre	Christmas carol
Composer(s)	Traditional with additions by Frederic Austin

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is an English

"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. There are many variations in the lyrics. The lyrics given here are from Frederic Austin's 1909 publication that established the current form of the carol.^[3] The first three verses run, in full, as follows:

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me
A partridge in a pear tree

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

Subsequent verses follow the same pattern. Each verse deals with the next day of Christmastide, adding one new gift and then repeating all the earlier gifts, so that each verse is one line longer than its predecessor.

• four calling birds
• five gold rings
• six geese a-laying
• seven swans a-swimming
• eight maids a-milking
• nine ladies dancing
• ten lords a-leaping
• eleven pipers piping
• twelve drummers drumming

Variations of the lyrics

The earliest known publications of the words to The Twelve Days of Christmas were an illustrated children's book, Mirth Without Mischief, published in London in 1780, and a broadsheet by Angus, of Newcastle, dated to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries.^[4][5]

While the words as published in Mirth without Mischief and the Angus broadsheet were almost identical, subsequent versions (beginning with

• In the earliest versions, the word on is not present at the beginning of each verse—for example, the first verse begins simply "The first day of Christmas". On was added in Austin's 1909 version, and became very popular thereafter.
• In the early versions "my true love sent to me" the gifts. However, a 20th-century variant has "my true love gave to me"; this wording has become particularly common in North America.[7]
• In one 19th-century variant, the gifts come from "my mother" rather than "my true love".
• Some variants have "juniper tree" or "June apple tree" rather than "pear tree", presumably a mishearing of "partridge in a pear tree".
• The 1780 version has "four colly birds"—colly being a regional English expression for "coal-black" (the name of the collie dog breed may come from this word).^[8][9] This wording must have been opaque to many even in the 19th century: "canary birds", "colour'd birds", "curley birds", and "corley birds" are found in its place. Austin's 1909 version, which introduced the now-standard melody, also altered the fourth day's gift to four "calling" birds, and this variant has become the most popular, although "colly" is still found.^{[original research?]}
• "Five gold rings" has often become "five golden rings", especially in North America since the 1961 recording by Mitch Miller and The Gang.^[7] In the standard melody, this change enables singers to fit one syllable per musical note.^[10]
• The gifts associated with the final four days are often reordered. For example, the pipers may be on the ninth day rather than the eleventh.^[9]

For ease of comparison with Austin's 1909 version given above:
(a) differences in wording, ignoring capitalisation and punctuation, are indicated in italics (including permutations, where for example the 10th day of Austin's version becomes the 9th day here);
(b) items that do not appear at all in Austin's version are indicated in bold italics.

Scotland

A similar cumulative verse from Scotland, "The Yule Days", has been likened to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" in the scholarly literature.^[20] It has thirteen days rather than twelve, and the number of gifts does not increase in the manner of "The Twelve Days". Its final verse, as published in Chambers, Popular Rhymes, Fireside Stories, and Amusements of Scotland (1842), runs as follows:^[29]

The king sent his lady on the thirteenth Yule day,
Three stalks o' merry corn,
Three maids a-merry dancing,
Three hinds a-merry hunting,
An Arabian baboon,
Three swans a-merry swimming,
Three ducks a-merry laying,
A bull that was brown,
Three goldspinks,
Three starlings,
A goose that was grey,
Three plovers,
Three partridges,
A pippin go aye;
Wha learns my carol and carries it away?

"Pippin go aye" (also spelled "papingo-aye" in later editions) is a Scots word for peacock^[30] or parrot.^[31]

Similarly, Iceland has a Christmas tradition where "

In the Faroe Islands, there is a comparable counting Christmas song. The gifts include: one feather, two geese, three sides of meat, four sheep, five cows, six oxen, seven dishes, eight ponies, nine banners, ten barrels, eleven goats, twelve men, thirteen hides, fourteen rounds of cheese and fifteen deer.^[32] These were illustrated in 1994 by local cartoonist Óli Petersen (born 1936) on a series of two stamps issued by the Faroese Philatelic Office.^[33]

Sweden

In

"Les Douze Mois" ("The Twelve Months") (also known as "La Perdriole"—"The Partridge")[36] is another similar cumulative verse from France that has been likened to The Twelve Days of Christmas.^[20] Its final verse, as published in de Coussemaker, Chants Populaires des Flamands de France (1856), runs as follows:^[37]

Le douzièm' jour d'l'année, Que me donn'rez vous ma mie? Douze coqs chantants, Onze plats d'argent, Dix pigeons blancs, Neuf bœufs cornus, Huit vaches mordants, Sept moulins à vent, Six chiens courants, Cinq lapins courant par terre, Quat' canards volant en l'air, Trois rameaux de bois, Deux tourterelles, Un' perdrix sole, Qui va, qui vient, qui vole, Qui vole dans les bois.

The twelfth day of the year What will you give me, my love? Twelve singing cockerels, Eleven silver dishes, Ten white pigeons, Nine horned oxen, Eight biting cows, Seven windmills, Six running dogs, Five rabbits running along the ground, Four ducks flying in the air, Three wooden branches, Two turtle doves, One lone partridge, Who goes, who comes, who flies, Who flies in the woods.

According to de Coussemaker, the song was recorded "in the part of [French] Flanders that borders on the

The exact origins and the meaning of the song are unknown, but it is highly probable that it originated from a children's memory and forfeit game.[42]

The twelve days in the song are the twelve days starting with

The best known English version was first printed in Mirth without Mischief, a children's book published in London around 1780. The work was heavily illustrated with woodcuts, attributed in one source to Thomas Bewick.^[44]

In the northern counties of England, the song was often called the "Ten Days of Christmas", as there were only ten gifts. It was also known in

There is evidence pointing to the North of England, specifically the area around Newcastle upon Tyne, as the origin of the carol. Husk, in the 1864 excerpt quoted below, stated that the carol was "found on broadsides printed at Newcastle at various periods during the last hundred and fifty years", i.e. from approximately 1714. In addition, many of the nineteenth century citations come from the Newcastle area.^{[14][21][23][25]} Peter and Iona Opie suggest that "if '[t]he partridge in the peartree' is to be taken literally it looks as if the chant comes from France, since the Red Leg partridge, which perches in trees more frequently than the common partridge, was not successfully introduced into England until about 1770".^[46]

Some authors suggest a connection to a religious verse entitled "Twelfth Day", found in a thirteenth century manuscript at Trinity College, Cambridge;^[47][48][49] this theory is criticised as "erroneous" by Yoffie.^[50] It has also been suggested that this carol is connected to the "old ballad" which Sir Toby Belch begins to sing in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.^[51]

Manner of performance

Many early sources suggest that The Twelve Days of Christmas was a "memory-and-forfeits" game, in which participants were required to repeat a verse of poetry recited by the leader. Players who made an error were required to pay a penalty, in the form of offering a kiss or confection.^[52]

Halliwell, writing in 1842, stated that "[e]ach child in succession repeats the gifts of the day, and forfeits for each mistake."^[6]

Salmon, writing from Newcastle, claimed in 1855 that the song "[had] been, up to within twenty years, extremely popular as a schoolboy's Christmas chant".^[14]

Husk, writing in 1864, stated:^[53]

This piece is found on broadsides printed at Newcastle at various periods during the last hundred and fifty years. On one of these sheets, nearly a century old, it is entitled "An Old English Carol," but it can scarcely be said to fall within that description of composition, being rather fitted for use in playing the game of "Forfeits," to which purpose it was commonly applied in the metropolis upwards of forty years since. The practice was for one person in the company to recite the first three lines; a second, the four following; and so on; the person who failed in repeating her portion correctly being subjected to some trifling forfeit.

Thomas Hughes, in a short story published in 1864, described a fictional game of Forfeits involving the song:^[17]

[A] cry for forfeits arose. So the party sat down round Mabel on benches brought out from under the table, and Mabel began, --

The first day of Christmas my true love sent to me a partridge and a pear-tree;

The second day of Christmas my true love sent to me two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree;

The third day of Christmas my true love sent to me three fat hens, two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree;

The fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me four ducks quacking, three fat hens, two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree;

The fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me five hares running, four ducks quacking, three fat hens, two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree;

And so on. Each day was taken up and repeated all round; and for every breakdown (except by little Maggie, who struggled with desperately earnest round eyes to follow the rest correctly, but with very comical results), the player who made the slip was duly noted down by Mabel for a forfeit.

Barnes (1882), stated that the last verse "is to be said in one breath".^[22]

Scott (1892), reminiscing about Christmas and New Year's celebrations in Newcastle around the year 1844, described a performance thus:^[25]

A lady begins it, generally an elderly lady, singing the first line in a high clear voice, the person sitting next takes up the second, the third follows, at first gently, but before twelfth day is reached the whole circle were joining in with stentorian noise and wonderful enjoyment.

"The Twelve Days" was a Christmas game. It was a customary thing in a friend's house to play "The Twelve Days," or "My Lady's Lap Dog," every Twelfth Day night. The party was usually a mixed gathering of juveniles and adults, mostly relatives, and before supper—that is, before eating mince pies and twelfth cake—this game and the cushion dance were played, and the forfeits consequent upon them always cried. The company were all seated round the room. The leader of the game commenced by saying the first line. [...] The lines for the "first day" of Christmas was said by each of the company in turn; then the first "day" was repeated, with the addition of the "second" by the leader, and then this was said all round the circle in turn. This was continued until the lines for the "twelve days" were said by every player. For every mistake a forfeit—a small article belonging to the person—had to be given up. These forfeits were afterwards "cried" in the usual way, and were not returned to the owner until they had been redeemed by the penalty inflicted being performed.

Meanings of the gifts

Partridge in a pear tree

An anonymous "antiquarian", writing in 1867, speculated that "

Gilchrist suggests that the adjective "French" may mean "foreign".[55] Sharp reports that one singer sings "Britten chains", which he interprets as a corruption of "Breton hens".^[58] William and Ceil Baring-Gould also suggest that the birds are Breton hens, which they see as another indication that the carol is of French origin.^[59]

Colly birds

The word "colly", found in the earliest publications, was the source of considerable confusion.^[60] Multiple sources confirm that it is a dialectal word, found in Somerset and elsewhere, meaning "black", so "colly birds" are blackbirds.^[14][55] Despite this, other theories about the word's origin are also found in the literature, such as that the word is a corruption of French collet ("ruff"), or of "coloured".^[18][47]

Gold rings

Shahn suggests that "the five golden rings refer to the ringed pheasant".^[61] William and Ceil Baring-Gould reiterate this idea, which implies that the gifts for first seven days are all birds.^[59] Others suggest the gold rings refer to "five goldspinks"—a goldspink being an old name for a goldfinch;^[62] or even canaries.^[a] However, the 1780 publication includes an illustration that clearly depicts the "five gold rings" as being jewellery.^[4]

General

According to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, "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."^[46] In 1979, a Canadian hymnologist, Hugh D. McKellar, published an article, "How to Decode the Twelve Days of Christmas", in which he suggested that "The Twelve Days of Christmas" lyrics were intended as a

The now-standard melody for the carol was popularised by the English baritone and composer Frederic Austin. The singer, having arranged the music for solo voice with piano accompaniment, included it in his concert repertoire from 1905 onwards.^[68] A Times review from 1906 praised the "quaint folk-song", while noting that "the words ... are better known than the excellent if intricate tune".^[69]

Austin's arrangement was published by

Earlier melodies

The earliest known sources for the text, such as Mirth Without Mischief, do not include music.

A melody, possibly related to the "traditional" melody on which Austin based his arrangement, was recorded in Providence, Rhode Island in 1870 and published in 1905.^[79] Cecil Sharp's Folk Songs from Somerset (1905) contains two different melodies for the song, both distinct from the now-standard melody.^[27]

Several folklorists have recorded the carol using traditional melodies. Peter Kennedy recorded the Copper family of Sussex, England singing a version in 1955 which differs slightly from the common version,^[82] whilst Helen Hartness Flanders recorded several different versions in the 1930s and 40s in New England,^{[83][84][85][86]} where the song seems to have been particularly popular. Edith Fowke recorded a single version sung by Woody Lambe of Toronto, Canada in 1963,^[87] whilst Herbert Halpert recorded one version sung by Oscar Hampton and Sabra Bare in Morgantown, North Carolina One interesting version was also recorded in 1962 in Deer, Arkansas, performed by Sara Stone;^[88] the recording is available online courtesy of the University of Arkansas.^[89]

Parodies and other versions

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• Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters recorded the traditional version of this song on 10 May 1949 for Decca Records.^[90]
• The Ray Conniff Singers recorded a traditional version in 1962, appearing on the album We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
• Jasper Carrott performed "Twelve Drinks of Christmas" where he appears to be more inebriated with each successive verse.^[91] This was based on Scottish comedian Bill Barclay's version.^[92]
• RCA Victor in 1953, but varied the lyrics with "11 Lords a Leaping", "10 Ladies Dancing", and "9 Pipers Piping". The orchestrations were done by Mitchell Ayres
  .
• Warner Bros. Records rushed out a 45 RPM version in early December.^[94]
• Christmas with The Chipmunks, Vol. 2
  .
• The illustrator Hilary Knight included A Firefly in a Fir Tree in his Christmas Nutshell Library, a boxed set of four miniature holiday-themed books published in 1963.^[95] In this rendition, the narrator is a mouse, with the various gifts reduced to mouse scale, such as "nine nuts for nibbling" and "four holly berries".^[96] Later released separately with the subtitle A Carol for Mice.^[96]
• Frank Sinatra and his children, Frank Sinatra Jr., Nancy Sinatra, and Tina Sinatra, included their own version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" on their 1968 album, The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas.^[97]
• Sears put out a special Christmas coloring book with Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh characters in 1973 featuring a version of the carol focusing on Pooh's attempts to get a pot of honey from a hollow honey tree, with each verse ending in "and a hunny pot inna hollow tree".
• Fay McKay, an American musical comedian, is best known for "The Twelve Daze of Christmas", a parody in which the gifts were replaced with various alcoholic drinks, resulting in her performance becoming increasingly inebriated over the course of the song.^[98]
• A radio play written by Brian Sibley, "And Yet Another Partridge in a Pear Tree" was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Day 1977.^[99] Starring Penelope Keith, it imagines the increasingly exasperated response of the recipient of the "twelve days" gifts.^[100] It was rebroadcast in 2011.^[101]
• The Muppets and singer-songwriter John Denver performed "The Twelve Days of Christmas" on the 1979 television special John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together. It was featured on the album of the same name. The song has been recorded by the Muppets five different times, featuring different Muppets in different roles each time.^[102]
• A
  Kingi Matutaera Ihaka, appeared as a picture book and cassette recording in 1981.^[103][104]
• On the late-night sketch-comedy program
  Bob & Doug McKenzie (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) released a version on the SCTV spin-off album Great White North.^[105]
• The Twelve Days of Christmas (TV 1993), an animated tale which aired on NBC, features the voices of
  Carter Cathcart, Donna Vivino and Phil Hartman.^[106]
• A Very Veggie Christmas. It was later rerecorded as a Silly Song for the episode The Little Drummer Boy in 2011.^[107]
• Christian rock band Relient K released a recording of the song on their 2007 album Let It Snow, Baby... Let It Reindeer. This version known for its slightly satirical refrain: "What's a partridge? What's a pear tree? I don't know, so please don't ask me. But I can bet those are terrible gifts to get."^[108]
• A program hosted by
  CMT in 2008. The theme music is "The Twelve Days of Christmas".^[109]
• Shannon Chan-Kent, as her character of Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, sings her own version of the song on the album My Little Pony: It's a Pony Kind of Christmas.^[110]
• Irish actor Frank Kelly recorded "Christmas Countdown" in 1982 in which a man named Gobnait O'Lúnasa receives the 12 Christmas gifts referenced in the song from a lady named Nuala. As each gift is received, Gobnait gets increasingly upset with the person who sent them, as said gifts wreak havoc in the house where he lives with his mother. This version charted in both Ireland (where it reached number 8 in 1982) and the UK (entering the UK chart in December 1983 and reaching number 26).^[111][112] The song peaked at number 15 in Australia in 1984.^[113]
• A special Creature Comforts orchestral arrangement of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was made by British animator Nick Park and Aardman Animations. Featuring different animals discussing or trying to remember the lyrics of the song, it was released on Christmas Day 2005.^[114]
• New Orleans band Benny Grunch and the Bunch perform a "locals-humor take" on the song, titled "The Twelve Yats of Christmas".^[115][116]
• The video game StarCraft: Broodwar released a new map named Twelve Days of StarCraft with the song which was adopted a new lyric featured units from the game by Blizzard on 23 December 1999.^{[117][unreliable source?]} In 2013, CarbotAnimations created a new web animation, StarCraft's Christmas Special 2013 the Twelve Days of StarCrafts, with the song which was played in the map Twelve Days of Starcraft.^[118]
• In
  gesticulation.^[119][120]
• A version by Crayola was made in 2008 titled The 64 Days of Crayola.
• American rock and roll radio on-air personality Bob Rivers made a version of the song, The Twelve Pains of Christmas (from Twisted Christmas, 1988), replacing the traditional gifts with a list of hassles associated with Christmas, such as installing decorative lighting, or going shopping for gifts.
• In the
  Mayas
  to ensure that a prophecy of the end of the world be foretold among Europeans even after the destruction of the Mayas' civilization.
• With reference to President Trump’s impeachment just before Christmas 2019, the Washington International Chorus performed the 12 Days of Christmas carol, with specially adapted lyrics by BBC News.

Bibliography

• Anonymous (c. 1800). Mirth without mischief Comtaining [sic] The twelve days of Christmas; The play of the gaping-wide-mouthed-wadling-frog; Love and hatred; ... and Nimble Ned's alphabet and figures. London: C. Sheppard.
• Austin, Frederic, (arr.) (1909). The Twelve Days of Christmas (Traditional Song). London: Novello.
  OCLC 1254007259. Novello 13056.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
  )
• Barry, Phillips (January 1905). "Some Traditional Songs". Journal of American Folk-Lore. XVIII (68). Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company: 49–59.
  JSTOR 534261
  .
• Eckenstein, Lina (1906). "Chapter XII: Chants of Numbers". Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes. London: Duckworth. pp. 61–65.
• Gomme, Alice Bertha (1898). The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Vol. ii. London: David Nutt. pp. 315–321.
• Husk, William Henry, ed. (1864). Songs of the Nativity. London: John Camden Hotten. pp. 181–185.
• Opie, Peter and Iona, eds. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, pp. 122–230,
  ISBN 0-19-869111-4
  .
• Sharp, Cecil J.; Marson, Charles L. (1905). Folk Songs from Somerset (Second Series). Taunton: Simpkin.
  hdl:2027/inu.39000005860007
  .
• Sharp, Cecil J.; Gilchrist, A. G.; Broadwood, Lucy E. (November 1916). "Forfeit Songs; Cumulative Songs; Songs of Marvels and of Magical Animals". Journal of the Folk-Song Society. 5 (20): 277–296.
• Yoffie, Leah Rachel Clara (October–December 1949). "Songs of the 'Twelve Numbers' and the Hebrew Chant of 'Echod mi Yodea'". The Journal of American Folklore. 62 (246): 399–401.
  JSTOR 536580
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Twelve Days of Christmas (song).

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Twelve Days of Christmas

• Free scores of The Twelve Days of Christmas in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free online simple melody score for all verses (as JPEGs or a PDF file) in English and Esperanto: "The Twelve Days of Christmas / La Dek Du Tagoj de Kristnasko"