'12 Days of Christmas' Gifts Inspired by the Classic Holiday Song
NOTE: Historically, the 12 Days of Christmas actually start with Christmas Day and finish with the eve of Epiphany on January 5.
The Concept
Starting on December 14th, for 12 days you anonymously deliver a small gift to a family, representing each day from the song. Then, On Christmas Day, you deliver the last gift in person — and if you're the caroling sort of family, you could sing the song as well.NOTE: Historically, the 12 Days of Christmas actually start with Christmas Day and finish with the eve of Epiphany on January 5.
Think of someone who has been special to you the past year or someone you know who is in need of cheering up. One each of the twelve days before Christmas leave a gift on their porch. You can ring the bell or knock but be sure to leave before they see who it is. If you want to you can reveal who you are on the last day. Better yet you can just leave them a note to pass the idea on to others by doing it themselves next year. This can be an individual or a group project and the gifts can be simple or silly or meaningful or a mixture of all those things. You can try to find things that go along with the original "Twelve Day's of Christmas poem or just use the numbers.
Here are some examples:
Day 1: pear ornament; a basket of pears or a homemade pear tart
Day 2: a box of chocolate turtles and a dove ornament; a bag of chocolate turtles and a bar of Dove soap
Day 3: an ornament with three hens side by side; samples of french perfume or chicken soup
Day 4: a cedar bird feeder filled with seed; four place mats with birds or a bird identifying book
Day 5: five gold napkin rings; pineapple rings or five Christmas candles
Day 6: Geese-a-laying ornaments, a half dozen eggs; liquor/wine with geese or goose in the title or make a homemade six-topping pizza
Day 7: plate of 7-Layer Bars or Swan Feather Ornaments
Day 8: hot cocoa or eight kinds of Christmas candy
Day 9: nine Christmas ornaments
Day 10: Jump rope; or a cookie platter with ten cookies [ or varieties]
Day 11: eleven rice crispy treats piled to look like a present and "tied" with red licorice
Day 12: candy filled drum; A drum [tin] of popcorn or A cookie tin decorated like a drum
Or to make things really simple... Give a complete set of 12 Days of Christmas ornaments all at once, or you could give one each night leading up to Christmas.
Resources: https://www.thespruce.com/christmas-verses-and-gifts-1250254
https://www.creatingreallyawesomefunthings.com/11-pipers-pipping/
Nat & Holly's 12 Days of Christmas series
https://www.sisterssuitcaseblog.com/12-days-of-christmas-diy-for-each-day/
