The Twelve Days of Christmas is an English Christmas carol (Roud # 68) which enumerates a series of increasingly grandiose gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas.
It is a cumulative song, in that each verse is built on the previous verses. It culminates on the twelfth day, when the gifts are 12 Drummers Drumming, 11 Pipers Piping, 10 Lords a-Leaping, 9 Ladies Dancing, 8 Maids a-Milking, 7 Swans a-Swimming, 6 Geese a-Laying, 5 Gold Rings, 4 Colly Birds (often given as "Calling Birds"), 3 French Hens, 2 Turtle Doves and a Partridge in a Pear Tree
It has been one of the most popular and most-recorded Christmas songs throughout the past century.
If you want to listen to the funny version of this song from the film Shrek, just click on the links below ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UhcmUU0QpY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=337DT2AfSws&feature=related
ACTIVITIES:
Wordsearch: http://homeschooling.about.com/library/12daysword.pdf
Printable activities: http://www.first-school.ws/THEME/printables/twelve-days-christmas.htm
Coloring pages: http://www.kidsturncentral.com/coloring/12dayscolor.htm
