12 Birds of Christmas
Wait ... The gifts of "12 Days of Christmas" are birds? They're ALL birds and they were supposed to be EATEN? Harambe · Dec 18, 2023 · NottheBee.com I, Harambe, saw this viral video the other day about the "12 Days of Christmas" gifts ALL being birds and I decided I had to do a little digging because the Not the Bee folks need to know about this. It's always been a joke about the song that after 4 days of birds, it must have been a relief to get the five golden rings. Except, according to some theories, EVERY gift in the 12 days of Christmas is a different bird. The song was originally written in a children's book called Mirth Without Mischief way back in the 1700s and some people believe that each day refers to a different bird that would be given to be prepared for a Christmas feast. (SORRY, NOT SORRY, VEGANS!) Obviously, you've got a partridge in a pear tree, 2 turtle doves, 3 French hens, 4 calling birds, all of which are (delicious) birds, but the first gift that isn't clearly ornithological are the five gold rings. However, it's not certain whether the gold rings should be interpreted literally. If we continue with the medieval banqueting theme, then they are most likely to be common, or ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) which were introduced to England from China in the Middle Ages. Ringneck Pheasant Then we get back to the obvious birds, geese a-laying, swans a-swimming, and we come to the 8 maids a-milking. This is the most difficult of all the potential birds to figure out since the authors didn't really lay out exactly what they were referring to.








