The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is an English Christmas carol and nursery rhyme. 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.

Lyrics

"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:

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.

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 final 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.For example, 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).http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/colly, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/collie 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. Annotations reprinted from 4000 Years of Christmas by Earl W. Count (New York: Henry Schuman, 1948).

For ease of comparison with Austin's 1909 version given above:

SourceGiver 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Mirth WithoutMischief, 1780 My true love sent to me Partridge in a pear-tree Turtle doves French hens Colly birds Gold rings Geese a laying Swans a swimming Maids a milking Drummers drumming Pipers piping Ladies dancing Lords a leaping Angus, 1774–1825 My true love sent to me Partridge in a pear tree Turtle doves French hens Colly birds Gold rings Geese a laying Swans a swimming Maids a milking Ladies Dancing Lords-a-Leaping Drummers Drumming Pipers Piping Baring-Gould, c. 1840 (1974) My true love sent to me Part of a juniper tree Turtle doves French hens Colley birds A golden ring Geese a laying Swans a swimming Hares a running Ladies dancing Lords a playing Bears a baiting Bulls a roaring Halliwell, 1842 My mother sent to me Partridge in a pear-tree Turtle doves French hens Canary birds Gold rings Geese a laying Swans a swimming Ladies dancing Lords a leaping Ships a sailing Ladies spinning Bells ringing Rimbault, 1846 Undated; date of 1846 confirmed by this catalogue from the Bodleian Library (p. 112), and an advertisement in the Morning Herald (). My mother sent to me Parteridge in a pear tree Turtle doves French hens Canary birds Gold rings Geese a laying Swans a swimming Ladies dancing Lords a leaping Ships a sailing Ladies spinning Bells ringing Halliwell, 1853 My true love sent to me Partridge in a pear tree Turtle doves French hens Colly birds Gold rings Geese a laying Swans a swimming Maids a milking Drummers drumming Pipers piping Ladies dancing Lords a leaping Salmon, 1855 My true love sent to me Partridge upon a pear-tree Turtle-doves French hens Collie birds Gold rings Geese a-laying Swans a-swimming Maids a-milking Drummers drumming Pipers piping Ladies dancing Lords a-leaping Caledonian, 1858 My true love sent to me Partridge upon a pear-tree Turtle-doves French hens Collie birds Gold rings Geese a-laying Swans a-swimming Maids a-milking Drummers drumming Fifers fifing Ladies dancing Lords a-leaping Husk, 1864 My true love sent to me Partridge in a pear-tree Turtle doves French hens Colley birds Gold rings Geese a-laying Swans a-swimming Maids a-milking Drummers drumming Pipers piping Ladies dancing Lords a-leaping Hughes, 1864Thomas Hughes, "The Ashen Fagot", in My true love sent to me Partridge and a pear tree Turtle-doves Fat hens Ducks quacking Hares running "and so on" Cliftonian, 1867 My true-love sent to me Partridge in a pear-tree Turtle-doves French hens Colley birds Gold rings Ducks a-laying Swans swimming Hares a-running Ladies dancing Lords a-leaping Badgers baiting Bells a-ringing Clark, 1875 My true love sent to me Partridge in a pear tree Turtle doves French hens Colour'd birds Gold rings Geese laying Swans swimming Maids milking Drummers drumming Pipers piping Ladies dancing Lords leaping Kittredge, 1877 (1917) My true love sent to me Some part of a juniper tree/And some part of a juniper tree French hens Turtle doves Colly birds Gold rings Geese a-laying Swans a-swimming [forgotten by the singer] Lambs a-bleating Ladies dancing Lords a-leading Bells a-ringing Henderson, 1879 My true love sent to me Partridge upon a pear tree Turtle doves French hens Curley birds Gold rings Geese laying Swans swimming Maids milking Drummers drumming Pipers piping Barnes, 1882 My true love sent to me The sprig of a juniper tree Turtle doves French hens Coloured birds Gold rings Geese a-laying Swans a-swimming Hares a-running Bulls a-roaring Men a-mowing Dancers a-dancing Fiddlers a-fiddling Stokoe, 1882. Reprinted at My true love sent to me Partridge on a pear tree Turtle doves French hens Colly birds Gold rings Geese a-laying Swans a-swimming Maids a-milking Drummers drumming Pipers piping Ladies dancing Lords a leaping Kidson, 1891 My true love sent to me Merry partridge on a pear tree Turtle doves French hens Colley birds Gold rings Geese a-laying Swans a-swimming Maids a-milking Drummers drumming Pipers piping Ladies dancing Lords a leaping Scott, 1892 My true love brought to me Very pretty peacock upon a pear tree Turtle-doves French hens Corley birds Gold rings Geese a-laying Swans a-swimming Maids a-milking Pipers playing Drummers drumming Lads a-louping Ladies dancing Cole, 1900; "obtained from Miss Nichols (Salem, Mass., about 1800)" My true love sent to me Parteridge upon a pear tree Turtle doves French hens Colly birds Gold rings Geese a laying Squabs a swimming Hounds a running Bears a beating Cocks a crowing Lords a leaping Ladies a dancing Sharp, 1905 My true love sent to me Goldie ring, and the part of a June apple tree Turtle doves, and the part of a mistletoe bough French hens Colley birds Goldie rings Geese a-laying Swans a-swimming Boys a-singing Ladies dancing Asses racing Bulls a-beating Bells a-ringing Leicester Daily Post, 1907 My true love sent to me A partridge upon a pear-tree Turtle doves French hens Collie dogs Gold rings Geese a-laying Swans a-swimming Maids a milking Drummers drumming Pipers playing Ladies dancing Lords a-leaping Austin, 1909 My true love sent to me Partridge in a pear tree Turtle doves French hens Calling birds Gold rings Geese a-laying Swans a-swimming Maids a-milking Ladies dancing Lords a-leaping Pipers piping Drummers drumming Swortzell, 1966 My true love gave to me Partridge in a pear tree Turtle doves French hens Collie birds Golden rings Geese a-laying Swans a-swimming Maids a-milking Pipers piping Drummers drumming Lords a-leaping Ladies dancing

Scotland 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:

"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. https://guidetoiceland.is/history-culture/christmas-and-new-year-s-eve-in-iceland

Faroe Islands

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.

Sweden 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 åttings of 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.https://katalog.visarkiv.se/lib/views/rec/ShowRecord.aspx?id=697897 (7:00-10:00)

France "Les Douze Mois" ("The Twelve Months") (also known as "La Perdriole"—"The Partridge")Ruth Rubin, Voices of a People: The Story of Yiddish Folksong, , p. 465 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:

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:For another version with a melody, see

History and meaning Origins 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.Mark Lawson-Jones, Why was the Partridge in the Pear Tree?: The History of Christmas Carols, 2011,