The Twelve Days of Christmas

 "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is an English Christmas carol. A classic example of a cumulative song, the lyrics detail a series of increasingly numerous gifts given to the speaker by their "true love" on each of the twelve days of Christmas (the twelve days that make up the Christmas season, starting with Christmas Day). The carol, whose words were first published in England in the late eighteenth century, has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 68. A large number of different melodies have been associated with the song, of which the best known is derived from a 1909 arrangement of a traditional folk melody by English composer Frederic Austin.

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. 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

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.

While the words as published in Mirth Without Mischief and the Angus broadsheet were almost identical, subsequent versions (beginning with James Orchard Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes of England of 1842) have displayed considerable variation:

• In early versions, at the beginning of each verse, the word on is skipped; for example, the last verse begins simply as "The twelfth 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.
• 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", which is likely 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). 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 changed the fourth gift to four "calling" birds, and this variant has become the most popular, although "colly" is still occasionally found.
• "Five gold rings" has often become "five golden rings", especially in North America since the 1961 recording by Mitch Miller and The Gang. In the standard melody, this change enables singers to fit one syllable per musical note.
• 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.

A similar cumulative verse from Scotland, "The Yule Days", has been likened to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" in the scholarly literature. 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:

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 or parrot.

Similarly, Iceland has a Christmas tradition where "Yule Lads" put gifts in the shoes of children for each of the 13 nights of Christmas.

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. These were illustrated in 1994 by local cartoonist Óli Petersen (born 1936) on a series of two stamps issued by the Faroese Philatelic Office.

In Blekinge and Småland, southern Sweden, a similar song was also sung. It featured one hen, two barley seeds, three grey geese, four pounds of pork, six flayed sheep, a sow with six pigs, seven åtting grain, eight grey foals with golden saddles, nine newly born cows, ten pairs of oxen, eleven clocks, and finally twelve churches, each with twelve altars, each with twelve priests, each with twelve capes, each with twelve coin-purses, each with twelve daler inside.

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

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 Pas de Calais". Another similar folksong, "Les Dons de l'An", was recorded in the Cambresis region of France. Its final verse, as published in 1864, runs:

Le douzièm' mois de l'an, que donner à ma mie? Douz' bons larrons, Onze bons jambons, Dix bons dindons, Neuf bœufs cornus, Huit moutons tondus, Sept chiens courants, Six lièvres aux champs, Cinq lapins trottant par terre, Quatre canards volant en l'air, Trois ramiers de bois, Deux tourterelles, Une pertriolle, Qui vole, et vole, et vole, Une pertriolle, Qui vole Du bois au champ.

The twelfth month of the year What should I give my love? Twelve good cheeses, Eleven good hams, Ten good turkeycocks, Nine horned oxen, Eight sheared sheep, Seven running dogs, Six hares in the field, Five rabbits trotting along the ground, Four ducks flying in the air, Three wood pigeons, Two turtle doves, One young partridge, Who flies, who flies, who flies, One young partridge, Who flies From the wood to the field.

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!