12 Days of Christmas Variations

I love the challenge of finding the 12 days of Christmas gifts each year. I have found several combinations to fit various themes. Most items you can find at the Dollar Tree, Target, The grocery store, or a party favors store like Oriental Trading or Party City.

The 12 days of Christmas begin or Dec 14th or Dec 25th (depending on how you use them.)

Here are four versions of the 12 Days of Christmas that you can give as gifts leading up Christmas: "Treats", "Ornaments", "Toys", and "Gag Groceries". Pick the one you like best or the one that best suits your gift recipient. "Toys" work well with younger children and "Treats" with older children. Adults and Teens will like "Treats" and older adults will enjoy the "Ornaments".


First here's the Original list from the song:

Day one: A partridge in a pear tree
Day two: Two turtle doves
Day three: Three French hens
Day four: Four calling birds
Day five: Five golden rings
Day six: Six geese a-laying
Day seven: Seven swans a-swimming
Day eight: Eight maids a-milking
Day nine: Nine ladies dancing OR Nine Pipers Piping
Day ten: Ten lords a-leaping OR Ten ladies dancing
Day eleven: Eleven pipers piping OR Eleven lords a leaping
Day twelve: Twelve drummers drumming OR Twelve Fiddlers fiddling

Note: In the version collected by John Jacob Niles, it was nine pipers piping, ten ladies dancing, eleven lords a-leaping, and twelve fiddlers fiddling. I used the variations interchangeably to suit my needs.

(All items pictured below are from the Dollar Tree)


Here's the "Toy" Version:

Day one: A partridge in a pear tree

a feathered toy bird

a plastic pear

any Partridge Family Toy

Day two: Two turtle doves
2 magic growing turtles

Day three: Three French hens
3 Peeps bubbles OR

3 Peeps chapsticks

Day four: Four calling birds
2 pairs of tropical bird sunglasses OR
4 bird slide whistles OR
4 plastic bird water whistles

Day five: Five golden rings
5 of any type dress up rings OR
5 gold hand bells

Day six: Six geese a-laying
3 packages of 2-pack silly putty

Day seven: Seven swans a-swimming
7 rubber duckies OR

7 bath toys OR

7 growing ducks

Day eight: Eight maids a-milking
8 magic disappearing baby bottles

Day nine: Nine ladies dancing
9 pairs of dress up shoes OR
9 dress up skirts OR
9 twirling ribbons OR
9 sheets of Disney Princess stickers

Day ten: Ten lords a-leaping
10 leap frog toys OR
10 wall climber guys

Day eleven: Eleven pipers piping
11 pipes, whistles or flutes of any kind
11 bubble pipes

Day twelve: Twelve drummers drumming
12 twirling drum noise makers

Here's the "Treats" version:

Day one: A partridge in a pear tree
Pear flavored juice boxes

Day two: Two turtle doves
2 chocolate turtles OR
2 Dove chocolate bars

Day three: Three French hens
french vanilla chocolates

Day four: Four calling birds
4 gummy bird lollipops

Day five: Five golden rings
Funyuns OR
TGIF Onion Ring Chips OR

Ring Pops

Day six: Six geese a-laying
6 Cadbury cream eggs

Day seven: Seven swans a-swimming
7 duckie lollipops OR

whale crackers OR

goldfish crackers

Day eight: Eight maids a-milking
8 Milky Ways OR
8 Milk Duds OR
8 Cow Tails OR
8 chocolate milk boxes

Day nine: Nine pipers piping
licorice pipes

Day ten: Ten ladies dancing
10 female character Pez dispensers

Day eleven: Eleven lords a-leaping
11 male character Pez dispensers OR
Sugar Daddy's

Day twelve: Twelve fiddlers fiddling
Fiddle Faddle

Here's the "Gag Groceries" version:

Day one: A partridge in a pear tree
a can of pears

Day two: Two turtle doves
a bar of Dove soap

Day three: Three French hens
a can of chicken noodle soup OR

canned chicken salad OR
a box of french vanilla coffee mix OR

french vanilla coffee flavoring

Day four: Four calling birds
a bag of throat drops

Day five: Five golden rings
a can of pineapple rings

Day six: Six geese a-laying
a half dozen carton of eggs

Day seven: Seven swans a-swimming
a bottle of bubble bath

Day eight: Eight maids a-milking
a carton of milk or chocolate milk

Day nine: Nine Pipers Piping
Pipe Tobacco OR

a corn cob pipe (can purchase at places they sell cigarettes)

Day ten: Ten ladies dancing
Foot bath salts OR
Foot powder OR
Foot rub

Day eleven: Eleven lords a leaping
Muscle Rub OR
Muscle Soak

Day twelve:Twelve Fiddlers fiddling
Fiddle Faddle

And finally, the "Ornament" version:

Day one: A partridge in a pear tree

1 glitter pear ornament in green or gold or

a fake pear strung with a ribbon

Day two: Two turtle doves
2 foam and feather doves

Day three: Three French hens
3 little chicken softies or

3 chicken figurines or

3 picture frame ornaments holding a picture of a french hen

Day four: Four calling birds
4 glitter bird ornaments

Day five: Five golden rings

5 gold rings from the wedding aisle

Day six: Six geese a-laying

6 gold silly putty eggs

6 foam egg decorations from the craft store

hollow out 6 real eggs and decorate

Day seven: Seven swans a-swimming

7 swan candy cups from the wedding aisle

Day eight: Eight maids a-milking
8 white milk pail cups from the wedding aisle

Day nine: Nine ladies dancing

9 glitter ladies shoes ornaments or

9 'glass' slipper favors from the wedding aisle

Day ten: Ten lords a leaping

10 glitter boot ornaments

Day eleven: Eleven pipers piping
11 trumpet ornaments

Day twelve: Twelve drummers drumming

12 drum ornaments

Bonus:

1 violin ornament as a wink to the 12 Fiddlers Fiddling version

Variations:

-Use the "Treats" or "Toys" version as stocking stuffers or secret santa gifts leading up to Christmas

-Make a gift basket out of the "Gag Groceries" or "Treats" version

-Print a word or picture scavenger hunt list for the "Ornaments" version. Work the ornaments into the christmas tree after the children go to sleep on Christmas eve. The Christmas morning scavenger hunt can buy parents a bit more sleep in time! Make sure they count up all the ornaments they find!

-Instead of working the ornaments into the tree, work them into the whole house's decorations. (ie. Turtle Doves on the dining room table centerpiece, Drums worked into the mantle garland, Calling birds used as door knob hangers, milk pails used as votive holders, ladies shoes worked into the door wreath, lords boots on the stair banister garland, etc...)

-Traditionally the 12 days of Christmas start on Christmas and go to Jan 5th. Use your gifts as a Christmas cool down leading to Jan 6th, Three King's Day. This marks the day the 3 kings finally reached the baby Jesus and is celebrated by eating a Galette de Roi or a King's Cake with a bean or prize baked inside. The youngest family member goes under the table and the eldest cuts each piece. The 'blind' family member under the table says who gets each piece so there's no cheating if the bean is seen while cutting. The prize finder is the King (or Queen) and gets to wear a paper or toy crown. If they drop their prize in another's drinking glass, they become their Queen (or King).

-Include a recipe card for Pineapple Upside-Down Cake and instructions for how to use the item to make a dinner of Chicken Noodle Soup with a side of pears followed by Pineapple Upside-Down Cake with milk. Then pop in a Christmas movie and relax after all that shopping, wrapping, and cooking by making yourself a mini spa with the rest of the items!

-Place the extra toys from the multi packs in a box or the Dollar Tree's cardboard treasure chest and use them for prizes for your child throughout the year.

-Place all the 12 days of christmas toys in a box for your child to sort and play with each year. Include an illustrated copy of the lyrics or a CD of the song.

Retirement Money Tree

My Uncle recently had a retirement party and I wanted to give him a fun, unique gift that didn't cost me a fortune. Here's what I made:

I was inspired by this money plant idea on Creativity Portal.

Here's what you'll need:

(I got all my items in a trip to the Dollar Tree, the dollars were bought off a nice server at a restaurant nearby.)

1 new clean toilet plunger

1 basket that will fit the toilet plunger

20 crisp dollar bills (give or take, you can change the denominations too)

2 bags of River rocks

rubber bands (not pictured)

decorations for the basket like embellishments, ribbon etc. (optional)

coins (optional)

Place the plunger in the basket.

Cover with 2 bags of river rocks

Then start folding the bills. Start with a dollar bill face down so that the green side is up.

Fold in half with the green side on the inside. Crease and unfold.

Turn the bill over and fold one corner to the center crease line.

Fold again to the center.

Repeat on all four corners.

Turn over and zig zag fold one side like shown. Crease.

You should now have this.

Repeat for all 20 bills. This can be a bit time consuming. You should now have 20 dollar bill leaves.

Wrap the plunger handle with five rubber bands evenly spaced. Wrap the band at the top of the handle and roll down to where you want it.

Slip the unfolded end of the dollar bill leaf into the rubber band as shown.

Place five leaves in the bottom 3 rubber bands each. Then three leaves in the next rubber band and two leaves in the top rubber band.

Stagger the second rung of leaves to be over the gaps in the previous level like in the photo.

The bills are small so I decided, with the help of my kitty there, to slide the leaves to the top to make a tree instead of a plant like in my inspiration.

I decorated the basket by hot gluing a strip of moss roll to the edge. I took a wide roll of wired ribbon and tied a pretty bow. I cut the bow ends into V's and attached it to the pole by looping a rubber band over one bow loop, then around the pole and over the other bow loop.

Then I hot glued on another scrap of moss roll and a sheriff badge (leftover from Charlie's badge's) to honor my Uncle's cowboy nature.

DONE!

I included a card with a note along the lines of: "May this prosperity tree bring you wealth in your retirement. Feel free to pluck a leaf whenever you need it. When the leaves are all gone, you will find another useful surprise." Then I let him try to figure out what the surprise is. It took him a while to guess a the plunger was fairly disguised but it made for a good laugh when I pushed aside some of the rocks as a hint.

This would be a great gift idea for anytime you want to give the gift of money such as a milestone birthday (1 bill for every year old), a graduation or even a new home which especially appropriate when you use all the dollars on your new home you will have another useful home tool ; ) !

It was a fairly fast project. he bill folding took the most time. I thought it would be fun to make this with those giant dollar bills in the toy section of the dollar store or from costume and party stores.

Of course you can always by the e-book on Creativity Portal for another design. This one also comes with a cute printable for a seed packet to go along with the plant that you can put pennies in.