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The song “Twelve Days of Christmas” has 364 gifts in total, with each verse representing a gift for a specific day. The origins of the song are believed to be a children’s counting game, and some of the gifts have alternative meanings, such as “Five Gold Rings” referring to pheasants.
364 gifts are in the song “Twelve Days of Christmas” if all the gifts mentioned in each of the verses are added together. Each verse refers to a gift that corresponds to a particular day of Christmas, from one gift (a partridge in a pear tree) on the first day to 12 items (playing drums) on the last day, with each previous gift accumulating during each new day verse of the song. Together, there would be: 12 partridges in the pear trees, 22 doves, 30 French hens, 36 decoy birds, 40 gold rings, 42 geese brooding, 42 swans swimming, 40 maids milking, 36 women dancing, 30 lords jumping, 22 bagpipers and 12 drummers playing drums.
More information on “The Twelve Days of Christmas”:
Some historians believe the song originated from a children’s counting and tongue twister game, where players had to recite sentences correctly or be out.
The verse for the fourth day of Christmas, in which the gift is four birds calling, originally had a text for “collie birds,” an old-fashioned term for blackbirds.
“Five Gold Rings” is thought not to be about jewelry, but rather to refer to pheasants, which have colorful gold rings around their necks.
