I sometimes tell people that I had a Norman Rockwell upbringing. Our Christmas tradition explains it. For over fifty years, my extended family gathers at Woodthrush Woods, the house that my dad’s parents built, for Christmas dinner. The number of guests ranges from 20-35 people, and we hoot and carry on. First Robby (my namesake for Robinette), and now my mother cook a enormous meal and trot out the good china and set a fine table. Multiple tables, actually, at this point.
After dinner, we all pull our chairs into the living room, and sit in a big circle. One of the cousins goes to the piano, while we pass out songbooks. Then we sing. We sing Christmas carols and call out the page number of the ones we most want to hear. I tend to ask for The Holly and the Ivy, because it was Robby’s favorite, and I miss her. At the end of the night, the last thing we do is sing the Twelve Days of Christmas. Dad divvies up the parts, so each day is taken by a different group. We get sillier and sillier as the song goes on, trying to act out different parts of the song. The maids a-milking can get pretty funny, I’ll tell you.
Eric James Stone just pointed out this version of the Twelve Days. What do you think, Mom and Dad? Care to try this Christmas Eve?
That is comedy gold.
I’ve been to a Christmas Eve service where the minister separated the congregation up much like your father did. Hilarity ensued as everyone was standing and sitting for their parts and things got increasingly competative. While all in good fun, not as amusing as the video though.
We may have more fun than they do, but we can’t sing nearly as well. Not a chance.
The twelve days You tube was wonderful! Could you imagine the practice sessions they must have gone through, though? Is to laugh!
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thank you thank you! This is now a holiday favorite for our whole family!
Last night we went to a concert by Choral Arts and their last number was (as best as I can remember) A Musicologist Journey Through the Twelve Days of Christmas. Each day was done in the style of different time periods starting with the Gregorian Chants and going on through renaissance, baroque, etc. The biggest hoot was when they did Wagner and it sounded so much like “Kill de Rabbit.†The twelfth day had a lot of “The Stars and Stripes Forever†in it.