Christmas: 12 Days, Songs, Lists, and Singing Mice

This is a very ‘Catholic’ household. But everything we do isn’t uniquely ‘Catholic’, or something Catholics must always do.

Take those mice, for example. My wife made them from bits of felt and cloth some years back, and they’ve been part of our Advent/Christmas displays ever since.

But having a chorus of felt mice isn’t an essential part of being Catholic.

There’s 11 of them, one short of the 12 days of Christmas, but there’s no profound symbolism involved. Aside from maybe representing the festive songs of this season.

“The Twelve Days of Christmas”, Numbers, and Lists

“The Twelve Days of Christmas” is among this season’s better-known songs.

The version we sing has been around since 1909. The song existed in one form or another since at least the late 18th century.

A little clerical work shows there’s nothing odd about the lyrics. Literally. From the 12 partridges to the 12 drummers, there isn’t an odd number in the list:

• Gifts in the “Twelve Days of Christmas”
  • 12 Partridges (1 x 12 = 12)
  • 22 Doves (2 x 11 = 22)
  • 30 Hens (3 x 10 = 30)
  • 36 Calling birds (4 x 9 = 36)
  • 40 Golden rings (5 x 8 = 40)
  • 42 Geese (6 x 7 = 42)
  • 42 Swans (7 x 6 = 42)
  • 40 Maids (8 x 5 = 40)
  • 36 Ladies (9 x 4 = 36)
  • 30 Lords (10 x 3 = 30)
  • 22 Pipers (11 x 2 = 22)
  • 12 Drummers (12 x 1 = 12)
• 364 gifts total

Adding them all up, that’s 364 gifts.

That’s just one less than the number of days in a year! Well, just one and just-shy-of-a-quarter days.

All those numbers, along with a few coincidences, suggest that the song means something.

Maybe so.

But most folks have a knack for seeing patterns in pretty much anything. There’s a five-dollar word for that sort of thing — “the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things” — apophenia.

My guess is that “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, along with “Jingle Bells” and “White Christmas”, are songs we hear and sing during the Christmas season: but don’t have any particularly deep spiritual significance.¹

That hasn’t kept folks from assigning meaning to the song’s birds and other gifts.

Drummers, Pipers, and Variable Birds

A few years ago, I ran into this rundown of what the gifts listed “The Twelve Days of Christmas” ‘really’ are:

1. A partridge in a pear tree
   • Jesus
2. Two turtle doves
   • The Old and New Testaments
3. Three French hens
   • Faith, hope, and love
4. Four calling birds
   • The four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
5. Five golden rings
   • The first five books of the Old Testament, which describe man’s fall into sin and the great love of God in sending a Savior
6. Six geese a-laying
   • The six days of creation
7. Seven swans a-swimming
   • The sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit: Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy
8. Eight maids a-milking
   • The eight beatitudes
9. Nine ladies dancing
   • The nine fruits of the Holy Spirit: Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience (Forbearance), Goodness (Kindness), Mildness, Fidelity, Modesty, Continency (Chastity)
10. Ten lords a-leaping
    • The Ten Commandments
11. Eleven pipers piping
    • The eleven faithful Apostles
12. The twelve drummers drumming
    • The twelve points of belief in The Apostles’ Creed

The numbers line up.

But the song’s assorted versions have replaced the eight maids a milking with hares a running, ladies dancing, hounds a running, and boys a singing, so I’m not convinced.

As for the partridge: okay, maybe. But again, I’m not convinced. The bird, and how it relates to the tree, has varied:

• Partridge in a pear-tree
• Parteridge in a pear tree
• Partridge upon a pear tree
• Partridge and a pear tree
• Partridge on a pear tree
• Merry partridge on a pear tree
• Very pretty peacock upon a pear tree

Then there’s the tree in the first gift. It’s variable, too:²

• Part of a juniper tree
• Some part of a juniper tree/and some part of a juniper tree
• The sprig of a juniper tree
• Goldie ring, and the part of a June apple tree

The Apostles’ Creed as a 12-Point List

Don’t get me wrong. I think the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Beatitudes, and the Gospels matter. I certainly think Jesus matters: a lot.

Good grief, I’m a Christian. Of course I think Jesus matters.

But that doesn’t mean I think “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is a secret message.

I do, however, think it’s a nice song: one that I sing occasionally. And it’s a part of this season that I enjoy.

I also think making lists can make sense when it comes to remembering stuff, so I broke the Apostle’s Creed out into a 12-point list:

• Apostles Creed (from Catechism of the Catholic Church, Credo)
  1. I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth
  2. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord
  3. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary
  4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried
  5. He descended to the dead
  6. On the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty
  7. From there he will come again to judge the living and the dead
  8. I believe in the Holy Spirit
  9. The holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints
  10. The forgiveness of sins
  11. The resurrection of the body
  12. And the life everlasting
• Amen

But I’m guessing that making the list won’t change how I repeat it in prayers and the like.

Christmases, Change, and Constants

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow….”
(“White Christmas” , Bing Crosby Lyrics, AZLyrics.com)

I live in central Minnesota, so I don’t have to dream of white Christmases most years.

Since I was born during the Truman administration, recent Christmases aren’t “just like the ones I used to know”. Change happens. I’ve seen a great deal of it. Some changes were long-overdue. Some haven’t gone the way I hoped.

But some things don’t change. Like human nature, which is still basically good. I’ve talked about that, and related ideas, before:

• “Christmas: Still Celebrating and Rejoicing” (December 25, 2025)
  • Celebrating the Messiah and Lord’s Birth
• “The Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, and the Big Picture” (March 22, 2025)
  • The Big Picture
    • Free Will, Living With Consequences, a Good Idea, and Very Good News
• “12 Days of Christmas, Plus 1” (January 4, 2020)
  • A Song and Celebrations
    • Gifts, Quacking Ducks and Assorted Origins
    • Geese a-laying, Leaping Lords and Pipers Piping
  • Perceptions and the Catechism’s Subdivisions
  • Turning Toward the Light
    • “We Saw His Star”
    • Herod’s Solution
    • “Magi From the East”
    • “Just the Beginning of a Great Procession”

¹ Seasonal songs, impalpable patterns, and a unit of time:

• Wikipedia
  • Apophenia (recognizing patterns that aren’t there)
  • Jingle Bells
  • Pareidolia (a particular sort of apophenia)
  • The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)
  • White Christmas (song)
  • Year

² More than you need, or may want, to know about:

• Wikipedia
  • Cumulative song (Like “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”)
  • Tetrahedral number
    • Popular culture (364 is the 12th tetrahedral number)
  • There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
  • The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)
• “The History of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’”
  Original Source: Fr. Calvin Goodwin, FSSP, Nebraska. Printed with permission from Catholic Tradition. Catholic News Agency
• “The Twelve Days of Christmas”
  Submitted by Dianne Golob, Diocesan Archivist, The Synod of the Diocese of Athabasca (December 12, 2025)