The Twelve Days of Christmas

We celebrated the 12 days of Christmas this year. It was fun and I think we will use the ideas we came up with this year to play Secret Santa for someone next Christmas. Each day we had a special food or activity to go along with the song. There is considerable confusion about when the 12 days begins. Many say that the 12 days of Christmas starts with Christmas Day and ends on the eve of Epiphany. Yet others believe it begins the day after Christmas (Boxing Day) and ends on Epiphany. And still others practice it by leading up to Christmas Day.

1) A partridge in a pear tree ~ We had both fresh and canned pears with our dinner.

2) Two turtle doves ~ We ate two Dove chocolates.

3) Three French hens ~ We had three eggs with candies in them beside our dinner plates.

4) Four colly birds ~ We decided to go with the term used in Europe for the saying colly birds or eating crow. We all wrote down a regret or misdeed we did in the past year and then burned it.

5) Five golden rings ~ We had onion rings for lunch.

6) Six geese a laying ~ We had a plastic egg hunt and each child found six eggs with pennies in them.

7) Seven swans a swimming ~ Everyone had bubble baths with ducks (the ugly duckling story comes to mind).

8) Eight maids a milking ~ We had chocolate milk for breakfast.

9) Nine ladies dancing ~ We had a dance contest during evening time with Daddy.

10) Ten lords a leaping ~ We flunked on this one. We did lots of leaping around while playing with Nerf guns.

11) Eleven pipers piping ~ We had homemade bread sticks shaped like pipes.

12) Twelve drummers drumming ~ We watched drum corps battle it out on YouTube.

Blessings, Dawn