The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)

First page of the carol, from Mirth without Mischief (c. 1780).

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 James Orchard Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes of England of 1842) have displayed considerable variation:[6]

• 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.
• "Five gold rings" has often become "five golden rings", especially in North America.[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.

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 "Yule Lads" put gifts in the shoes of children for each of the 13 nights of Christmas.

One of the two "Twelve Days of Christmas" Faroe stamps

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]

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.[34][35]

"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 Pas de Calais".[37] Another similar folksong, "Les Dons de l'An", was recorded in the Cambresis region of France. Its final verse, as published in 1864, runs:[38][39]

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,[40] 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,[41] Who flies, who flies, who flies, One young partridge, Who flies From the wood to the field.

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 Christmas Day to the day before Epiphany (5 January). Twelfth Night is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the evening of January 5th, the day before Epiphany, which traditionally marks the end of Christmas celebrations".[43]

Illustration of "Twelve Lords a Leaping", from Mirth Without Mischief

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 Somerset, Dorset, and elsewhere in England. The kinds of gifts vary in a number of the versions, some of them becoming alliterative tongue-twisters.[45] "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 (Indiana University Studies, Vol. 5, 1935), 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.[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]

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.

Lady Gomme wrote in 1898:[54]

"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.

An anonymous "antiquarian", writing in 1867, speculated that "pear-tree" is a corruption of French perdrix ([pɛʁ.dʁi], "partridge").[18] This was also suggested by Anne Gilchrist, who observed in 1916 that "from the constancy in English, French, and Languedoc versions of the 'merry little partridge,' I suspect that 'pear-tree' is really perdrix (Old French pertriz) carried into England".[55] The variant text "part of a juniper tree", found as early as c. 1840, is likely not original, since "partridge" is found in the French versions.[11][48] It is probably a corruption of "partridge in a pear tree", though Gilchrist suggests "juniper tree" could have been joli perdrix, [pretty partridge].[56][55]

Another suggestion is that an old English drinking song may have furnished the idea for the first gift. William B. Sandys refers to it as a "convivial glee introduced a few years since, 'A Pie [i.e., a magpie] sat on a Pear Tree,' where one drinks while the others sing."[57] The image of the bird in the pear tree also appears in lines from a children's counting rhyme an old Mother Goose.[45]

A pye sate on a pear tree, Heigh O

Once so merrily hopp'd she; Heigh O

Twice so merrily, etc.

Thrice so, etc.

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]

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]

Illustration of "five gold rings", from the first known publication of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (1780)

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.[lower-alpha 1] However, the 1780 publication includes an illustration that clearly depicts the "five gold rings" as being jewellery.[4]

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 catechism song to help young English Catholics learn their faith, at a time when practising Catholicism was against the law (from 1558 until 1829).[64] McKellar offered no evidence for his claim. Three years later, in 1982, Fr. Hal Stockert wrote an article (subsequently posted on-line in 1995) 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 the period of Catholic repression was also hypothesised in this same time period (1987 and 1992) by Fr. James Gilhooley, chaplain of Mount Saint Mary College of Newburgh, New York.[65][66] Snopes.com, a website reviewing urban legends, Internet rumours, e-mail forwards, and other stories of unknown or questionable origin, 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.[52]

Melody of "The Twelve Days of Christmas", from Austin's 1909 arrangement

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.[67] A Times review from 1906 praised the "quaint folk-song", while noting that "the words ... are better known than the excellent if intricate tune".[68]

Frederic Austin

Austin's arrangement was published by Novello & Co. in 1909.[69][70][71][72] According to a footnote added to the posthumous 1955 reprint of his musical setting, Austin wrote:[73]

This song was, in my childhood, current in my family. I have not met with the tune of it elsewhere, nor with the particular version of the words, and have, in this setting, recorded both to the best of my recollection. F. A.

A number of later publications state that Austin's music for "five gold rings" is an original addition to an otherwise traditional melody. An early appearance of this claim is found in the 1961 University Carol Book, which states:[74][75]

This is a traditional English singing game but the melody of five gold rings was added by Richard [sic] Austin whose fine setting (Novello) should be consulted for a fuller accompaniment.

Similar statements are found in John Rutter's 1967 arrangement,[76] and in the 1992 New Oxford Book of Carols.[77]

Many of the decisions Austin made with regard to the lyrics subsequently became widespread:

• The initial "On" at the beginning of each verse.
• The use of "calling birds", rather than "colly birds", on the fourth day.
• The ordering of the ninth to twelfth verses.

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 [nth] day of Christmas, my true love gave to me", are made up of two ⁴
₄ bars, while most of the lines naming gifts receive one ³
₄ bar per gift with the exception of "Five gold rings", which receives two ⁴
₄ bars, "Two turtle doves" getting a ⁴
₄ bar with "And a" on its fourth beat and "partridge in a pear tree" getting two ⁴
₄ bars of music. In most versions, a ⁴
₄ bar of music immediately follows "partridge in a pear tree". "On the" is found in that bar on the fourth (pickup) 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 (when "Five gold rings" is first sung), 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.

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.[78] 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,[81] whilst Helen Hartness Flanders recorded several different versions in the 1930s and 40s in New England,[82][83][84][85] where the song seems to have been particularly popular. Edith Fowke recorded a single version sung by Woody Lambe of Toronto, Canada in 1963,[86] 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;[87] the recording is available online courtesy of the University of Arkansas.[88]

• 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. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. XVIII (68): 49–59. doi:10.2307/534261. 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. doi:10.2307/536580. JSTOR 536580.