The "How Many Days Of Christmas? - Part I" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Listening to one of my favorite Christmas songs, "The Twelve Days of Christmas."  I'm sure you must have heard of it.  You know...On the First Day of Christmas my true love gave to me ... a Purple Parrot In A Palm Tree!  Doesn't sound familiar?  You must not be a Parrothead then.  You know...A Jimmy Buffet fan!  Anyway, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" may not be exactly what you think when you sing the song.  Do you realize that the "four calling birds" were at one time sung as: four canary birds, four mockingbirds, even colly birds or collie birds which is actually the archaic term for blackbirds.  And, the "5 golden rings" aren't probably what you think they may be either.  The golden rings may have referred to the yellowish rings around a pheasant's neck or possibly the goldspink which is an old name for a pretty little bird call the Goldfinch.  That actually makes sense since every other lyric in the first seven days has to do with a bird such as turtle doves, French hens, calling birds, partridge, etc.  

Oh yeah, talking about the partridge... there is some evidence that the lyric, "partridge in a pear tree" is actually an Angliciza- tion of what would have begun as a French word for partridge: perdrix.  The line would thus have been...a partridge, une perdrix.  Sound like..."a partridge in a pear tree" to you?  Also read that there is some evidence that the song started as a children's game.  The tune may have been part of a kid's memory and counting game where children sat in a circle and took turns singing different verses of the tune.  If a kid messed up, he was "out" and the game continued on until there was only one left.  Game was said to be like the game Spin the Bottle where if you messed up in the game you owed someone a kiss, much like playing a game with mistletoe.  You began with the number twelve and had to sing backwards until you got to one.  In the early 1900's a game began where groups of people got together to count "Christmas Birds" instead of hunting them over the Christmas season.  Began by Audubon member Frank Chapman who convinced a handful of people to begin to stop hunting birds and count them over Christmas.  They eventually founded groups all over the country and today there are over 2,000 groups with tens of thousands of members.  Also read that a group of economists began, in 1984, to figure out how much it would cost if you gathered together all the items mentioned in the song.  Back then it would have cost about $15,000 while today it may cost you almost $35,000.  Well, I've told you everything you may want to know about the beginning of the song, but didn't mention the items that Jimmy Buffet sings about in his song.  So here goes: 

1. On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me...a purple parrot in a palm tree.
2. On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me...2 tattoos.
3. On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me...3 fin hats.
4. On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...4 Hawaiian Ukes.
5. On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...5 cheeseburgers.
6. On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...6 Mac guitar picks (Mac being Mac MaAnally his guitarist).
7. On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me...7 Vegas tickets.
8. On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...8 vintage 8-tracks.
9. On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...9 pairs of flip flops.
10. On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...10 tiki torches.
11. On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me...11 Lulu cookbooks (Lucy Buffett, known as Lulu, is Jimmy's little sister).
12. On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...12 Landshark lagers.

So which rendition of the song do you like the best?  I kind of like both the traditional, but also enjoy Jimmy's version, especially if I'm sitting on a beach chair under an umbrella while with a drink in my hand.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.