The 12 Days of Christmas

Hello!! I pray that all is well with my readers and their families as we approach a wonderful but oftentimes, hectic Thanksgiving and Christmas season!

My fellow Heritage Scrap Creative Team member and wonderful friend, Helene aka Victoria32, has found some fascinating history on the web and has agreed to share it with us here on the Vintage Vicki blog.

Helene is researching this topic because she will soon be hostessing a fun and oftentimes, rowdy (!!) challenge at Heritage Scrap called The 12 Days of Christmas Challenge. It is a progressive challenge and for those of you who have done these challenges in the past, you know that they are full of surprises and can get pretty funny at times! Its easy to *scrap yourself into a corner* and some ways scrappers use to get out of these situations can be quite hilarious! Now, Helene is a fairly serious and conservative scrapper so I'm pretty sure she will not allow any food fights in her challenge. But, you know me and my temper tantrums, if I get too frustrated with trying to add 10 buttons or 5 ribbons or whatever to my layout and just can't find a nice way to do it, I've been known to throw my nachos or ice cream or whatever I'm eating at my friendly neighborhood scrapper - on occasion only, not very often, but I have ... done it ... a few times - hey, nobody is perfect ya know, don't throw stones and all that stuff!!

Anyway! Look for Helene's challenge coming up soon in the Heritage Scrap forum!! You will have a blast with this one! And of course .... there are prizes!! Shhhhh!!! I didn't say that!!!

Now for Helene's fascinating history lesson....

Twelve Days of Christmas

The Twelve Days of Christmas, and the associated evenings of those twelve days (Twelve-tide), are the festive days beginning on Christmas Day (December 25) and ending on the evening of the Twelfth Day of Christmas (January 5). Thus, the first night of Christmas is December 25–26 and Twelfth Night is January 5-6. This period is also known as Christmastide. The day after Twelfth Night is Epiphany on January 6.

Over the centuries, differing churches and sects of Christianity have changed the actual traditions, time frame and their interpretations. Originally this was a secular love song. It sounds to be by a single woman, whose "True Love", a man, sent her gifts. It was probably originally sung in the French language.


The first day of Christmas my true love sent to me
A parteridge in a pear tree.
(Now "partridge")

The second day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Two turtle doves
And a parteridge in a pear tree.

The third day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Three French Hens
Two turtle doves
And a parteridge in a pear tree.

The fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Four Colly birds . . .
(Now "Calling birds", but originally "Colly birds" = black birds., "Colly" means
"black as coal" in old English, as in "colliery")

The fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Five gold rings . . .
(Originally these were pictured as "golden ring"-necked pheasants, not jewelry.
All the first five gifts were birds.)

The sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Six geese a-laying . . .

The seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Seven swans swimming . . .
(Now "a-swimming")

The eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Eight maids a-milking . . .

The ninth day of Christmas my true Love sent to me
Nine drummers drumming . . .

The tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Ten pipers piping . . .

The eleventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Eleven ladies dancing . . .

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 parteridge in a pear tree.

In modern versions, the "lords, ladies, pipers, drummers" are often switched around.

According to some Roman Catholics, this carol might also have been used as a memory aid for teaching the Christian faith, but this is contradicted at Snopes. In particular, from 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not allowed to practice their Faith openly. At that time (according to those Roman Catholics), this traditional English carol was adopted as a catechism song for young Catholics. For them, it had two levels of meaning: the original surface meaning as a love song, plus later hidden religious meanings.

The hidden meanings parallel the verses of the Anglican catechism song "A New Dial" about the numbers on a sun-dial, and, in modern times, the religious connotations in the popular song "Deck of Cards".

One partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.

Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.

Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.

Four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.

Six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.

Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit: prophesy, serving, teaching, exortation, contribution, leadership, and mercy.

Eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.

From here on, the order is different from the original song!

Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.

Eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.

Twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.