Five Fun historical facts about The Twelve Days of Christmas song

If you’ve been listening to Christmas music since the day after Halloween, you no doubt have heard the song . . . On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me . . . right? And we’ve all seen the marketing blitzes along the lines of “12 day count-down to Christmas savings” starting–you guessed it–12 days before Christmas.

But the thing is, Christmas day marks the beginning of the twelve days of Christmas, not the end. Instead of kicking our Christmas tree to the curb on December 26th, we get to celebrate the Christmas season all the way to Epiphany!

Speaking of the 12 days of Christmas, make sure to sign up HERE for my newsletter because I’ll be celebrating the REAL 12 days of Christmas by giving away a book to one lucky person on my newsletter list — from Christmas Day to Epiphany! SORRY, THIS GIVEAWAY IS OVER!

To get you ready to celebrate the real twelve days of Christmas, I did a little historical research about this ancient song so you could have some fun facts to share at your holiday gatherings.

Fun fact #1: We think of this as an Old English song, but it is mostly likely French (or to be more correct, Frankish). The earliest published form for the song was in an 1780s English children’s book, Mirth Without Mischeif. This book noted that the song was first sung at “King Pepin’s Ball”. There was no English king named Pepin, but there was Pepin the Short, the father of Charlemagne, who ruled the Holy Roman Empire in the mid 700s. That makes this one of the oldest Christmas carols known to us.

Fun Fact #2: The song probably originated as what was called a “forfeit game” for children. The goal was for each child to take a turn on a verse, and if a mistake was made, they were to ‘forfeit’ a kiss, a candy, or a small token. To make it even more challenging, the last verse was to be said all in one breath. Sounds like a fun game for the kids this Christmas!

Fun fact #3: There’s been talk around the internet that this song was a secret code for teaching Catholic doctrine when the Church was persecuted in England during the Reformation. Each verse of the song is said to be a reminder of one of the teachings of Catholicism (see below) This theory was first put forth by a Canadian hymnologist, Hugh McKellar, in 1979. There’s very little evidence that proves this theory. In fact, the teachings the song is said to reinforce are truths of all Christianity, not just Catholic, so it seems unlikely they were a secret code. That being said, there’s nothing wrong with remembering the truths of our faith as we sing this Christmas song.

Fun fact #4. As with many songs passed down over centuries, this one has plenty of variations. Sometimes the gifts come from ‘my true love’ and sometimes they are gifts ‘my mother sent to me’. In England, it is still sometimes “Four colly birds” (meaning blackbirds in Old English) where we would sing of ‘calling birds’.

Fun fact #5. The gift-giver of the song was a generous true love, indeed. Every year, the PNC Christmas Price Index measures the cost of all the items in the last verse of the song. 2021 has seen the largest increase in the cost of these unusual gifts in almost a decade. To give all the gifts, from one partridge in a pear to tree all the way up to twelve drummers drumming would cost $41, 206 (up from $38, 994 in 2019) Amanda Agati, chief investment officer at PCN’s Asset Management Group, is quoted as saying, “ Exotic pets, performers and gold rings experienced the largest price jumps this year.”

I hope you’ve enjoyed following me down this little historical rabbit hole. If you want to get my historical tidbits and bookish info delivered right to your inbox, just sign up HERE for my newsletter. It comes out about twice a month, when I’m not on a deadline and every month I give away a book to a lucky subscriber.

Unless it’s the twelve days of Christmas, then I give away a book EVERY DAY.

Now for an important question. Which of the twelve gifts of the song would YOU like to receive? Let me know in the comments. I’ll post my choice there, too.

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