The last Christmas genre of this holiday season features a very popular song, whose melody will get a person’s ears ringing thanks to the singing earworm. The 12 Days of Christmas was first produced in 1780 in England as a set of lyrics only. The melody was produced as a folk song by Frederic Austin and with its various forms and tricks, has been the standard Christmas song. Recently, in a book entitled Ideals Christmas, Rebecca Barlow Jordan traced the Twelve Days of Christmas to not only the 12 days of celebrating the birth of the Lord, Jesus Christ, but also to the twelve days journey by the three Wise Men, who traveled to see the baby Lord, carrying with them the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh- both of which were pinpointed to the time between Christmas Day (the 25th of December) and the Day of Epiphany (the 6th of January).
In either case, the lyrics remain the same, as in the graphic above, yet the many variations of the 12 Days of Christmas have existed and are growing. I have three versions that are worth watching as we wind down the holiday season and prepare for the next one- the first in the third decade of the third millennium. The first one features a classic produced by John Denver and the Muppets from 40 years ago. The Muppets variation has changed five times since the origin from 1979, using five different sets of characters, still, they are fun to watch, nonetheless:
The next version is a rather wild and funnier version of the 12 Days of Christmas, with two actors imitating the gifts given on each of the 12 days- until they are pooped out. This was done by the Crossroads Bible Church Group:
And the last example was performed by the Angel City Chorale, where the song is interrupted by first, many Christmas carols and then by the song Africa, by the pop group Toto. It’s one worth the laughs:
The reason for presenting the 12 Days of Christmas on Epiphany? To close out the holiday season for Epiphany represents the confirmation that the Lord hath Cometh. A perfect way to begin with the Year of the Lord and honor him for what he did for humanity. Case closed! 🙂
THE FLENSBURG FILES 