It turns out the twelve days gifts from the song has been a popular motif with artists, decorators, cartoonists, and editorialists to design a layout presenting all twelve days or gifts in a single graphics image (or needlepoint, wallpaper, etc). A couple of these we have been using for “featured image” in posts. But here is a small collection, some very traditional and some sardonic, to stand in for the wide realm of possibility.
As noted by commenters during the course of the Twelve Days postings, and in the Addenda section of that post itself, sometimes a familiar comics source will touch on the Twelve Days song lyrics, illustrating and hopefully finding a joke in the lists of gifts. Sometimes this has even taken the form of a series of daily appearances for a half-dozen or even a full dozen strips.
“MGG” had the start of a run in 2011, concluding at Five with a kind of recap/roundup:
Then in 2012 they did a full run of twelve!
This didn’t mean they were burnt out on the Twelve Days Song material altogether, but later appearances were not as extensive. Here is a singleton from 2016 touching on first and third day:
The OTM series or singles referencing the Twelve Days song seem to encompass an almost-full series carried out over two years. The second year had a postscript of an attempt to return many of the canonical gifts at a department store returns window. Then there was a singleton on the twelve drummers, and some later repeats in color.
Here is the kickoff, in 2002:
Then in 2003 they pick up the story with the infamous “apricot sauce” panel for Seventh Day:
Yes, we used those plumbers in our own run-thru!
Here, from 2004, was an OTM singleton but with content based in the Twelve Days gifts:
And the 2002 series included a detached postscript of an attempt at the returns window.
We couldn’t locate an extensive series from the Twelve Days song for the “Argyle Sweater” strip, but they did have some separate panels that relate to it. Both these examples are from this year. We used the “ten lords a-leaking” (sent in by Andréa) in the course of the run of our Twelve Days thread. And after that, a nice example of a single-panel comic taking on multiple gifts from the song; here instead of a department store returns window, it’s a food ordering window.
This series, from 2006, proceeds normally (so to speak) thru five, then jumps ahead to twelve to get it over with! (Oh, and do we need a geezer clue for “Prince Albert in a can”?)
During the course of the Twelve Days postings, several astute commenters remarked on other phrasings used for some of the gifts in versions of the song, as well as some gifts entirely replaced rather than just worded differently. Here is a historical summary of some of those variations, in the form of a table.
This is a large HTML table (long and wide). So it may not display well. I hope on the platforms where this would help that it gets embedded in a scrollable insert box, perhaps. If you have trouble with it here, please just go to the Wikipedia original where you may have more luck, as well as finding more extensive notes than have been quoted here.
From the Wikipedia article on the Twelve Days song.
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.| Source | Giver | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mirth without Mischief, 1780[5] |
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[10] | 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 |
| Halliwell, 1842[11] | 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, c. 1846[12] | 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[13] | 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[14] | 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[15] | 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[16] | 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, 1864[17] | My true love sent to me | Partridge and a pear tree | Turtle-doves | Fat hens | Ducks quacking | Hares running | “and so on” | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Cliftonian, 1867[18] | 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[19] | 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)[20] | 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[21] | 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[22] | 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, 1888[23] | 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[24] | 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[25] | 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[26] | 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[27] | 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[28] | 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[4] | 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[6] | 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 |
Watch VU MCMXCIII Heroin at YouTube . And watch Moe Tucker create the overwhelming pacing.
For those into timpani, here is Part 1 of 3 of a tutorial on changing and tuning TIMpani heads, by TIM Genis of the Boston Symphony. A little inTIMidating as he starts off with saying it is simple, and showing the ten products you will need. Fun as this is, it isn’t the one I was looking for — let me know if you find one about the excitement of receiving the delivery of the new “skins” and the start of the installation, from a big-name orchestra percussion section.
Djembe class recital, Old Town School of Folk Music 2013. This one brings ten drummers!
And how could “Little Drummer Girl” have been an instantly comprehended title had there not been the song “Little Drummer Boy”.
But maybe not everybody loves that boy:
And a bonus on the plumber == piper theme!
Ist das die richtige Anzahl tanzender Damen? NEIN!
And a bonus of six more geese laying — or at least being encouraged to do so.
Comics and other images were contributed by Rob S., Andréa, Kilby, and other readers.
The Liz Climo panel for Six Geese was picked up from a discussion on Arnold Zwicky’s blog, which takes an interest in analyzing the language of comics.
“Mother Goose and Grimm” has more than once run thru the twelve days, with different levels of punning. Usually they run these *before* Christmas Day, as a sort of countdown; and skip weekends. (We at CIDU have followed the traditional pattern of starting on Christmas Day and counting forwards until 06 January.) The 2012 series of MG&G, for interest, started with the first day on Wednesday, 12 December 2012, here. The “two hurtled gloves” was used here in draft (until the tee-shirt with the hybrids showed up) and was from the 2011 series, which started on Monday, 19 December 2011, with a “Partridge Family” joke., and did not go on for all twelve.
“Off the Mark” similarly had full or partial series around 2002, 2003, and a one-shot in 2004. These also took a pre-Christmas Day quasi-countdown approach. This strip also gives a nice example of a one-shot panel or strip referencing several of the Twelve Days gifts via some gag like the store returns window seen here — with variations seen pretty often. Our 11 plumbers plumbing came from one of these OTM series. This very recent “Argyle Sweater” also puts a long (but not total!) list of the items into one transaction, in this case a purchase rather than returns (and for eating!).
“New Adventures of Queen Victoria” has had a series, with jokes about the accumulation of gifts. (As faithful reader Deety let us know, back on the First Day!😀 ) It seems to be used for reruns; the 2020 version started with the First Day just on 21 December. A GoComics comment for the Second Day entry answers one of the usual math questions (below) and nicely shows their work for each kind of gift. The 2006 run may have been the original (the dates in the drawings match the publication dates), but it runs for a five-weekdays-plus-Saturday span only, jumping from a nervous Fifth Day to a sudden escape with a Twelfth Day intervention.
After completion of this thread on 05 January, we will make a new post, as a postscript, to sample or present some of those partial or full twelve-day series from familiar comics.
The featured image at the top of the post puts all twelve days together in a grid of boxes, with a representative for each kind of gift in the day’s box. That one is straightforwardly traditional and plain representations, but there are good examples of satiric or political-editorial intent in that format, such as this Ted Rall. After completion of this thread on 05 January, we will make a new post, as a postscript, to present a few of these 12-icon layouts.
For a detailed account of the history of the song and variations in the gifts accumulated in the lyrics, see the Wikipedia article. After completion of this thread on 05 January, we will make a new post, as a postscript, to present the table of historical lyric variations from that Wikipedia article.
Maybe someone can find and link the math-problem treatment of summing the total number of each kind of gift, on the assumption that the gifts mentioned in different “daily” run-thrus do accumulate — so that, for example there are 5 gold rings for day 5, another 5 gold rings for day 6, etc., for a total of 40. Which item has the highest total count? Which the lowest? What is the total of gifts for all kinds? Do the partridge and its pear tree count separately? If you don’t care to do the work yourself right now, here is how a goComics commenter summarized it for Queen Victoria readers. Now tell us, what is that series {12, 22, 30, 36, 40, 42, 42, 40, 36, 30, 22, 12} related to? It’s not quite a binomial expansion, or a diagonal of Pascal’s triangle …
Note from Second Day: There is a nice exposition from CIDU faithful reader Woozy on some math questions for the Twelve Days!.
And here is an interesting graphic account of some of the numbering questions:
Also there is an epistolary story parody similarly based in an assumption of accumulating quantities, in which the fair lady receiving the gifts gets increasingly annoyed in each letter, up to the cease-and-desist order. Please do find and link!
Update: Many thanks to faithful reader Shrug for finding and sharing this publication of a transcript exactly that story! And in turn, the collector who runs that blog has provided a link to an MP3 audio file of what seems to be the original radio presentation of this story.
Further: Actually, it is listed on the Wikipedia article in the Parodies and Other Versions section. If only we had been reading closer, sooner.
(And how charming that the lady in the skit turns out to be named Cynthia – pleasing for a reason you will see on Twelfth Day!)
We have been concentrating on the lyrics so intently, we mustn’t lose sight of the music itself!
(Answers start around 6:30)
(Top graphic credit: Xavier Romero-Frias, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Little Drummer Boy phono single cover art: for usage see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Single_Harry_Simeone_Chorale-The_Little_Drummer_Boy_cover.gif#filelinks
Comics I Don't Understand 
