The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)


"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is an English Christmas carol that enumerates in the manner of a cumulative song a series of increasingly grand gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas. The song, published in England in 1780 without music as a chant or rhyme, is thought to be French in origin. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 68. The tunes of collected versions vary. The standard tune now associated with it is derived from a 1909 arrangement of a traditional folk melody by English composer Frederic Austin, who introduced the familiar prolongation of the verse "five gold rings".

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 adding one new gift and repeating all the earlier gifts so that each verse is one line longer than its predecessor:

Variations of the lyrics

The earliest known version of the lyrics was published in London under the title "The Twelve Days of Christmas sung at King Pepin's Ball", as part of a 1780 children's book, Mirth without Mischief. Subsequent versions have shown considerable variation:
For ease of comparison with Austin's 1909 version given above:
differences in wording, ignoring capitalisation and punctuation, are indicated in italics;
items that do not appear at all in Austin's version are indicated in bold italics.
SourceGiver123456789101112
Mirth without
Mischief, 1780		My true love sent to mePartridge in a pear-treeTurtle dovesFrench hensColly birdsGold ringsGeese a layingSwans a swimmingMaids a milkingDrummers drummingPipers pipingLadies dancingLords a leaping
Angus, 1774–1825My true love sent to mePartridge in a pear treeTurtle dovesFrench hensColly birdsGold ringsGeese a layingSwans a swimmingMaids a milkingDrummers drummingPipers pipingLadies dancingLords a leaping
Halliwell, 1842My mother sent to mePartridge in a pear-treeTurtle dovesFrench hensCanary birdsGold ringsGeese a layingSwans a swimmingLadies dancingLords a leapingShips a sailingLadies spinningBells ringing
Rimbault, c. 1846My mother sent to meParteridge in a pear treeTurtle dovesFrench hensCanary birdsGold ringsGeese a layingSwans a swimmingLadies dancingLords a leapingShips a sailingLadies spinningBells ringing
Halliwell, 1853My true love sent to mePartridge in a pear treeTurtle dovesFrench hensColly birdsGold ringsGeese a layingSwans a swimmingMaids a milkingDrummers drummingPipers pipingLadies dancingLords a leaping
Salmon, 1855My true love sent to mePartridge upon a pear-treeTurtle-dovesFrench hensCollie birdsGold ringsGeese a-layingSwans a-swimmingMaids a-milkingDrummers drummingPipers pipingLadies dancingLords a-leaping
Caledonian, 1858My true love sent to mePartridge upon a pear-treeTurtle-dovesFrench hensCollie birdsGold ringsGeese a-layingSwans a-swimmingMaids a-milkingDrummers drummingFifers fifingLadies dancingLords a-leaping
Husk, 1864My true love sent to mePartridge in a pear-treeTurtle dovesFrench hensColley birdsGold ringsGeese a-layingSwans a-swimmingMaids a-milkingDrummers drummingPipers pipingLadies dancingLords a-leaping
Hughes, 1864My true love sent to mePartridge and a pear treeTurtle-dovesFat hensDucks quackingHares running"and so on"——————
Cliftonian, 1867My true-love sent to mePartridge in a pear-treeTurtle-dovesFrench hensColley birdsGold ringsDucks a-layingSwans swimmingHares a-runningLadies dancingLords a-leapingBadgers baitingBells a-ringing
Clark, 1875My true love sent to mePartridge in a pear treeTurtle dovesFrench hensColour'd birdsGold ringsGeese layingSwans swimmingMaids milkingDrummers drummingPipers pipingLadies dancingLords leaping
Kittredge, 1877 My true love sent to meSome part of a juniper tree/And some part of a juniper treeFrench hensTurtle dovesColly birdsGold ringsGeese a-layingSwans a-swimmingLambs a-bleatingLadies dancingLords a-leadingBells a-ringing
Henderson, 1879My true love sent to mePartridge upon a pear treeTurtle dovesFrench hensCurley birdsGold ringsGeese layingSwans swimmingMaids milkingDrummers drummingPipers piping——
Barnes, 1882My true love sent to meThe sprig of a juniper treeTurtle dovesFrench hensColoured birdsGold ringsGeese a-layingSwans a-swimmingHares a-runningBulls a-roaringMen a-mowingDancers a-dancingFiddlers a-fiddling
Stokoe, 1888My true love sent to mePartridge on a pear treeTurtle dovesFrench hensColly birdsGold ringsGeese a-layingSwans a-swimmingMaids a-milkingDrummers drummingPipers pipingLadies dancingLords a leaping
Kidson, 1891My true love sent to meMerry partridge on a pear treeTurtle dovesFrench hensColley birdsGold ringsGeese a-layingSwans a-swimmingMaids a-milkingDrummers drummingPipers pipingLadies dancingLords a leaping
Scott, 1892My true love brought to meVery pretty peacock upon a pear treeTurtle-dovesFrench hensCorley birdsGold ringsGeese a-layingSwans a-swimmingMaids a-milkingPipers playingDrummers drummingLads a-loupingLadies dancing
Cole, 1900My true love sent to meParteridge upon a pear treeTurtle dovesFrench hensColly birdsGold ringsGeese a layingSquabs a swimmingHounds a runningBears a beatingCocks a crowingLords a leapingLadies a dancing
Sharp, 1905My true love sent to meGoldie ring, and the part of a June apple treeTurtle doves, and the part of a mistletoe boughFrench hensColley birdsGoldie ringsGeese a-layingSwans a-swimmingBoys a-singingLadies dancingAsses racingBulls a-beatingBells a-ringing
Leicester Daily Post, 1907My true love sent to meA partridge upon a pear-treeTurtle dovesFrench hensCollie dogsGold ringsGeese a-layingSwans a-swimmingMaids a milkingDrummers drummingPipers playingLadies dancingLords a-leaping
Austin, 1909My true love sent to mePartridge in a pear treeTurtle dovesFrench hensCalling birdsGold ringsGeese a-layingSwans a-swimmingMaids a-milkingLadies dancingLords a-leapingPipers pipingDrummers drumming
Swortzell, 1966My true love gave to mePartridge in a pear treeTurtle dovesFrench hensCollie birdsGolden ringsGeese a-layingSwans a-swimmingMaids a-milkingPipers pipingDrummers drummingLords a-leapingLadies 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, runs as follows:
"Pippin go aye" 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.

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 on a series of two stamps issued by the Faroese Philatelic Office.

France

"Les Douze Mois" 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, runs as follows:
According to de Coussemaker, the song was recorded "in the part of Flanders that borders on the Pas de Calais".

Origins 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.
The twelve days in the song are the twelve days starting with Christmas Day, or in some traditions, the day after Christmas , to the day before Epiphany, or the Feast of the Epiphany. 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 best known English version was first printed in 1780 in a book intended for children, Mirth without Mischief, as a memorization game to be played on Twelfth Night. 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.
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 Somerset, Dorset, and elsewhere in England. The kinds of gifts vary in a number of the versions, some of them becoming alliterative tongue-twisters. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was also widely popular in the United States and Canada. It is mentioned in the section on "Chain Songs" in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, p. 416.
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.

Manner of performance

, writing in 1842, stated that "ach child in succession repeats the gifts of the day, and forfeits for each mistake."
Salmon, writing from Newcastle, claimed in 1855 that the song " been, up to within twenty years, extremely popular as a schoolboy's Christmas chant".
Husk, writing in 1864, stated:
Thomas Hughes, in a short story published in 1864, described a fictional game of Forfeits involving the song:
Barnes, stated that the last verse "is to be said in one breath".
Scott, reminiscing about Christmas and New Year's celebrations in Newcastle around the year 1844, described a performance thus:
Lady Gomme wrote in 1898:

Meanings of the gifts

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 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 the lines that survive today both in England and France are merely an irreligious travesty."
An anonymous "antiquarian", writing in 1867, speculated that "pear-tree" is a corruption of French perdrix, and "colley" a corruption of French collet.
Cecil Sharp, writing in 1916, observed that "from the constancy in English, French, and Languedoc versions of the 'merry little partridge,' I suspect that 'pear-tree' is really perdrix carried into England"; and "juniper tree" in some English versions may have been "joli perdrix," . Sharp also suggests the adjective "French" in "three French hens", probably simply means "foreign".
According to Iona and Peter Opie, the red-legged partridge perches in trees more frequently than the native common partridge and was not successfully introduced into England until about 1770.
William S. Baring-Gould suggests that the presents sent on the first seven days were all birds—the "five gold rings" were not actually gold rings, but refer to the five golden rings of the ringed pheasant. Others suggest the gold rings refer to "five goldspinks"—a goldspink being an old name for a goldfinch; or even canaries. However, the 1780 publication includes an illustration that clearly depicts the "five gold rings" as being jewellery.
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 catechism song to help young Catholics learn their faith, at a time when practising Catholicism was criminalised in England. McKellar offered no evidence for his claim. Three years later, in 1982, Fr. Hal Stockert wrote an article in which he suggested a similar possible use of the twelve gifts as part of a catechism. The possibility that the twelve gifts were used as a catechism during English and Irish Catholic penal times was also hypothesized in this same time period by Fr. James Gilhooley, chaplain of Mount Saint Mary College of Newburgh, New York. Snopes.com, a website reviewing urban legends, Internet rumours, e-mail forwards, and other stories of unknown or questionable origin, also concludes that the hypothesis of the twelve gifts of Christmas being a surreptitious Catholic catechism is incorrect. None of the enumerated items would distinguish Catholics from Protestants, and so would hardly need to be secretly encoded.

Music

Standard melody

The now-standard melody for the carol was published in 1909 by Novello & Co. English composer Frederic Austin fitted the words to a traditional melody, to which he added his own two-bar motif for "Five gold rings". Many of the decisions Austin made with regard to the lyrics subsequently became widespread:
The time signature of this song is not constant, unlike most popular music. This irregular meter perhaps reflects the song's folk origin. The introductory lines "On the day of Christmas, my true love gave to me", are made up of two bars, while most of the lines naming gifts receive one bar per gift with the exception of "Five gold rings", which receives two bars, "Two turtle doves" getting a bar with "And a" on its fourth beat and "partridge in a pear tree" getting two bars of music. In most versions, a bar of music immediately follows "partridge in a pear tree". "On the" is found in that bar on the fourth beat for the next verse. The successive bars of three for the gifts surrounded by bars of four give the song its hallmark "hurried" quality.
The second to fourth verses' melody is different from that of the fifth to twelfth verses. Before the fifth verse, the melody, using solfege, is "sol re mi fa re" for the fourth to second items, and this same melody is thereafter sung for the twelfth to sixth items. However, the melody for "four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves" changes from this point, differing from the way these lines were sung in the opening four verses.
In the final verse, Austin inserted a flourish on the words "Five gold rings". This has not been copied by later versions, which simply repeat the melody from the earlier verses.
A similar 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.

Earlier versions

In the 19th century, most sources for the lyrics do not include music, and those that do often include music different from what has become the standard melody.
Cecil Sharp's Folk Songs from Somerset contains two different melodies for the song, both distinct from the now-standard melody.

Parodies and other versions

Since 1984, the cumulative costs of the items mentioned in the song have been used as a tongue-in-cheek economic indicator. Assuming the gifts are repeated in full in each round of the song, then a total of 364 items are delivered by the twelfth day. 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 2015 Christmas Price Index is US$34,130.99, or $155,407.18 for all 364 items. The original 1984 cost was $12,623.10. The index has been criticised for not accurately reflecting the true cost of the gifts featured in the Christmas carol.

Footnotes