The 12 Days of Christmas – Sing and Learn English!

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we're going to be looking at a song, and it's a

Christmas song. So, Christmas in the UK, Christmas Day is the 25th of December, but the Christmas

period is longer than just one day. There are different versions and different traditions,

but one tradition is that there are 12 days of Christmas. So, in that tradition the 12

days of Christmas run from the 25th of December through to the 5th of January, and the 5th

of January is known as 12th night. Okay, and it's the time, the date when you start taking

down all the Christmas decorations, get rid of the tree if you had a tree, put things

away, get back to normal again, Christmas is over.

So... But this song has come out of that 12-day tradition, and it's quite a funny song because

some... It's about somebody who sends his girlfriend a present on each day of the 12

days of Christmas. But it's not just one present each time, it's... It's the present for that

day, but also all the presents from the previous day as well, so it's sort of... It's a huge

number of presents and it's impossible, really, for it to happen, but this is it. So, when

I say: "12 days of Christmas", of course people joke about Christmas starting around October

because if you walk into a supermarket in the UK, probably in other countries as well

where Christmas is celebrated, the supermarkets often put their Christmas things out in October,

and you go in and you see mince pies, Christmas cards for sale, and Christmas puddings, and:

"Oh no, not Christmas already and it's only October", so Christmas sometimes feels like

12 weeks, not 12 days, but anyway, this song limits it to 12 days. So let's have a look

at the words.

So, it begins... And I will teach you the tune as well in a minute. It begins: "On the

first day of Christmas my true love sent to me a Partridge in a Pear Tree." So, a partridge

is a kind of bird, okay; and a pear tree, a tree which grows pears obviously. Okay,

so that's the first day. Just one present. But then by the second day: "On the 2nd day

of Christmas my true love sent to me 2 Turtle Doves", that's two more birds, doves, "and

a Partridge in a Pear Tree". So, now the recipient... The person receiving the gifts has two pear

trees with two partridges and two turtle doves by the end of day two. Okay?

So, this is a song, so at this point I think I need to sing you how it sounds so far. So,

here we go: "On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me a Partridge in a Pear

Tree. On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love sent to me 2 Turtle Doves and a Partridge

in a Pear Tree." Okay, so that's how it goes. It's quite repetitive. It's the same tune

all the way through, basically, but I'll sing it again as we go through, as the song gets

longer and longer. And you'll see also that this is quite a useful song for learning the

numbers when you say: "First, 2nd, 3rd" because in English when you put the number and "nd"

or "3rd", "4" and then after... From 4 onwards you have "th", but can see the "st", when

you have "first" you put "1st", "second, 2nd; third, 3rd", and then "fourth, 4th". So this

song helps you with those numbers as well.

Okay, so the 3rd day... "On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love sent to me 3 French

Hens", so more birds. Lots of birds flying around. 3 French hens, whatever French hens

are, I'm not sure, but there we are. So, third day the person receives three French hens,

two turtle doves, and another partridge in a pear tree, so all of these things are adding

up. Okay. Fourth day, are you ready? Are you still with me? So: "On the 4th day of Christmas

my true love sent to me 4 Calling Birds". So, more birds, calling. The birds that make

calling sounds. "4 Calling Birds, 3 French Hens, 2 Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a

Pear Tree." Okay?

So, the fifth day, this line is a little bit different because it sort of slows down and

there's a bit of a pause, so it's a good place to breathe a bit. So: "On the 5th day of Christmas

my true love sent to me 5 Gold Rings." So, that's a bit slower and you can take your

time over that. "5 Gold Rings, 4 Calling Birds, 3 French Hens, 2 Turtle Doves, and a Partridge

in a Pear Tree." So, okay, and so it goes on. So you get the idea of how the song works.

So, I will now just go through the words for the remainder of the lines and then perhaps

you'd like to join in with me, and when we sing the whole thing right through from the

12th going backwards. Okay, so the 6th day: "6 Geese a-Laying", geese, goose,

geese, birds again. This "a" that appears, we have... It comes a few times. You can ignore

it, really. It's just a way of filling in an extra syllable just to make it work in

terms of the rhythm, so don't worry about it. It's geese laying, geese laying eggs,

because when geese produce, when birds produce their eggs it's called "laying, to lay an

egg". To lay an egg. Okay? So: "6 Geese a-Laying". The 7th day "7 Swans"-another bird-"a-Swimming",

so the swans, lovely white birds on water, they're just swimming along, looking every

elegant as they usually do. Okay.

The 8th day... Now, we've got some people now coming into it. That's the end of all

the birds, now it's people. So: "8 Maids a-Milking", maids are young women, and they're milking...

Milking a cow to get the milk out of the cow. Okay? So they're milkmaids, they're working

in the dairy, producing from the cow. So: "8 Maids a-Milking". The 9th day there are

"9 Ladies Dancing", so that's simple. The 10th day: "10 Lords a-Leaping", so lords are

sort of aristocratic men, upper class. "Leaping" is another word for jumping, so they're leaping

around, jumping about. So, it sort of balances with the ladies dancing, the ladies are dancing,

the lords are leaping. Okay. The 11th day we get "Pipers Piping", so a musician with

a pipe, either this... That goes this way or that way like a flute. Pipers piping. What

else do pipers do? They pipe, they play the pipe. Okay. And then finally: "12 Drummers

Drumming", so they have their drums, they're drumming on their drums. Okay.

So, are you ready, then, to join in with me to sing the whole song? Okay? So, let's go.

"On the 12th day of Christmas my true love sent to me 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 Calling Birds, 3 French Hens, 2 Turtle Doves, and a Partridge

in a Pear Tree."

There we are. So, that's the song. I hope you've enjoyed it, and I hope it's been useful

for learning the numbers and also perhaps some unfamiliar vocabulary. So, please go

to the website where there's a quiz on this subject, www.engvid.com and please subscribe

to my channel if you've enjoyed this lesson, and see you again soon. Okay, bye.