The 12 Days of Christmas

I found this neat idea and wanted to pass it on. This is a fun family activity, and a great way of giving during the Christmas Season.

"The 12 Days of Christmas". It is a "ring and run" activity to do with the children. Buy the items listed below, make their tags, and have the kids start dropping them off, one each day of course, to a special friend starting on December 13. Do this after dark and don't get caught!

To be printed out and used as tags:
"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree." It seems that the partridge has flown away & we really hated to cut down the tree, so here are some pears." (canned or fresh pears)"

"On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two turtle doves..." We weren’t sure what “turtle doves” were so here are two doves and some turtles." (2 travel-sized bars of Dove soap & chocolate-covered peanut "turtles")

"On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, three French hens..." The French hens are so relieved to hear that you are vegetarian. They sent some French bread with their compliments." (vegetarian family, I think the original called for chicken soup)

"On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, four calling birds..." The calling birds called, they are snowed-in at O’Hare. Please accept this substitute." (either a pre-paid phone card or message pad)

"On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, five gold rings!" Yeah, but have you seen the price of gold lately? We hope you’ll enjoy these “golden rings” instead." (pineapple rings)

"On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, six geese a-laying..." Apparently the geese have flown south for the winter. We didn’t think you wanted a houseful of geese anyway. How about some eggs that were a-laid?" (basket of eggs)

"On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, seven swans a-swimming..." It’s really too cold for swimming so the swans have been taking nice hot bubble baths." (bubble bath)

"On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, eight maids a-milking..." We couldn’t fit eight cows on your doorstep so here’s a little something the maids gave us." (ice cream)

"On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, nine ladies dancing..." The ladies have a gig at Rockefeller Center through January but here’s some Christmas music you can dance to if you like." (Christmas music)

"On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, ten lords a-leaping..." Can you believe it? All ten lords a-leaping pulled muscles last year and vowed to give it up entirely. They did kindly send their canes in case you decide to try it." (candy canes) (alternate suggestion: give a tube of Ben-Gay and have the tag say that the lords heartily recommend its use, especially after a hard day of leaping!)

"On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, eleven pipers piping..." One of the pipers thought he spotted Nessie and refused to cross the loch. The other ten decided to cancel since they needed eleven to fly for the group rate. This is to be served “piping” hot." (apple cider or hot cocoa mix)

"On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, twelfth drummers drumming..." We really didn’t think you wanted twelve drummers drumming in your house so we drummed-up some cookies for you. Hope they keep your day from being hum-"drum". Merry Christmas!" (plate of cookies)