“On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas, Although It May Seem Strange.”: A Holiday Tradition

One of my holiday traditions is to listen to the following:  “On the twelfth day of Christmas, although it may seem strange.  On the twelfth day of Christmas, I’m going to exchange…”  So sings Allan Sherman on his album, For Swingin’ Livers Only!  In a contemporary satire on the carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas, Sherman enumerates the silly and trivial gifts he has received, including “green polka dot pajamas”, “a calendar book with the name of my insurance man”, “an indoor plastic birdbath”, etc.  The carol has been the subject of numerous satires.   Willard Espy provides one of the best in his Words At Play, In this satire, the writer imagines how a lady would react if she really did receive all the gifts listed in The Twelve Days of Christmas.  The conclusion is most amusing.  Just a note:  the Victorians were fond of number games and it’s interesting that the number of fowl in the carol equals the number of musicians, 23.  I wonder…

About Robert M. Weiss
From an early age, I've taken great pleasure in reading. Also, I learned to play my 78 player when I was quite young, and enjoyed listening to musicals and classical music. I remember sitting on the floor, and following the text and pictures of record readers, which were popular in the 1940s and 50s. My favorites were the Bozo and Disney albums. I also enjoyed watching the slow spinning of 16s as they spun out tales of adventure. I have always been attracted by rivers, and I love to sit on a boulder with my feet in the water, gazing into the mysteries of swirling currents. I especially like inner tubing on the Rogue River in Southern Oregon. Since my early youth, I've been interested in collecting minerals, which have taught me about the wonderful possibilities in colors and forms. Sometimes I try to imagine what the ancient Greeks must have felt when they began to discover physical laws in nature. I also remember that I had a special passion for numbers, and used to construct them out of stones. After teaching Russian for several years, I became a writer, interviewer, editor, and translator. I continue to delight in form, and am a problem solver at heart.

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