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If you actually got all the things sent in the song 'The Twelve Days of Christmas', your house would be a zoo, among other things. 
You would have:
12 pear trees and partridges
22 turtle doves
30 French hens
36 calling birds
40 golden rings
42 geese laying, (eggs I assume, sounds bad)
42 Swans
40 Maids milking
36 ladies dancing
30 lords leaping
22 pipers piping
and 12 drummers drumming
Origin of "The Twelve Days Of Christmas"
Memory aid, Musical game or Mystery? Many Christmas carols or songs seem to have clear biblical or obvious historical connections, but where on earth does "The Twelve Days of Christmas" fit into the picture? In my research on the matter there does seem to be two main plausible persuasions in the matter, detailed below, each battling against the other.
Memory aid
Is it a good deal more than just a repetitious melody with pretty phrases and a list of strange gifts? Some catholic quarters of the church would have us believe so. There is a theory that it is some kind of "Underground Catechism" with a quite serious purpose when it was written.
The story goes that things were as politically chaotic in the days of King Henry VIII as they are to this day. Henry was a good, firm king, but a bad, failed husband. He tried to get the Catholic church to let him divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon so he could marry someone else, but the Pope would not allow it. In anger and arrogance King Henry simply abolished the Catholic Church from England entirely, and set up his own Church with himself as its head! He could then do as he wished, so he granted his own divorce. Of course, the Catholics in England at the time were not overly thrilled to have Henry for a Pope, especially as he went on to try to suppress the catholic catechism through force. From 1558 to 1829, Catholics in England were prohibited from practicing their faith by law.
As a result, the story continues, persecuted Catholics went "underground". Without the usual regular Catholic church services and teachings Catholic parents supposedly used this song to remind their children of the tenants of their faith as a kind of veiled memory aid.
Getting caught with anything in writing indicating you followed the Catholic faith could not only get you imprisoned, it could get you tortured and hanged. So, the gifts in the song contain hidden meanings to the teachings of the faith:
The "true love" is God Himself.
The "me" who receives the presents refers to every baptized person.
The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge which feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestling's, much in memory of the expression of Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered thee under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but thou wouldst not have it so..."
2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.
6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments
8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed
There are a large number of arguments against this theory, mainly focusing on the lack of published early evidence for the theory, and the fact that the tenants memorized are not purely Catholic (with the exception of the sacraments) and would have caused no problem with their open expression.
Musical Game
Another theory suggests the song possibly began as a Twelfth Night "memory-and-forfeits" musical game. One person acting as the leader would say a verse, then each of the players repeated the verse. The leader then added another verse and so on until one of the players made a mistake, with the player who erred having to pay a penalty, such as a offering up a kiss or a sweet. This is how the song was presented in its earliest known printed version, in the 1780 children's book Mirth Without Mischief. The song is apparently much older than this printed version, but it is not known exactly how much older. Textual evidence indicates that the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was not English in origin, but French. Three French versions of the song are known, and items mentioned in the song itself (the partridge, for example, which was not introduced to England from France until the late 1770s) are indicative of a French origin, so could not have been known widely in England until after that time.
It is possible that "The Twelve Days of Christmas" has been confused with (or is a transformation of) a song called "A New Dial" (also known as "In Those Twelve Days"), which dates to at least 1625 and assigns religious meanings to each of the twelve days of Christmas (but not for the purposes of teaching a catechism). In a manner somewhat similar to the memory-and-forfeits performance of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," the song "A New Dial" was recited in a question-and-answer format:
When are the twelve days of Christmas?
One thing we do know is that the Church in general celebrates twelve days of Christmas. In the Church, as in the synagogue, the day technically begins at sunset. Therefore, Christmas begins at sundown on 24 December, which we very appropriately call Christmas Eve. For this reason, Christmas Eve is the most special day of the season. The Christmas Season, which begins with Christmas Eve, ends on the eve of Epiphany, which is sundown on 5 January. Therefore, Christmas lasts twelve days, and the period from sundown on 24 December to sundown on 5 January is called the Twelve Days of Christmas. What we do know is that the twelve days of Christmas in the song signify the twelve days between the birth of Christ (Christmas, December 25) and the coming of the Magi (Epiphany, January 6). Although the specific origins of the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" are not known,
However, some of the days during Christmas have meanings of their own.
Sad, that I have time to think about this.
You would have:
12 pear trees and partridges
22 turtle doves
30 French hens
36 calling birds
40 golden rings
42 geese laying, (eggs I assume, sounds bad)
42 Swans
40 Maids milking
36 ladies dancing
30 lords leaping
22 pipers piping
and 12 drummers drumming
Origin of "The Twelve Days Of Christmas"
Memory aid, Musical game or Mystery? Many Christmas carols or songs seem to have clear biblical or obvious historical connections, but where on earth does "The Twelve Days of Christmas" fit into the picture? In my research on the matter there does seem to be two main plausible persuasions in the matter, detailed below, each battling against the other.
Memory aid
Is it a good deal more than just a repetitious melody with pretty phrases and a list of strange gifts? Some catholic quarters of the church would have us believe so. There is a theory that it is some kind of "Underground Catechism" with a quite serious purpose when it was written.
The story goes that things were as politically chaotic in the days of King Henry VIII as they are to this day. Henry was a good, firm king, but a bad, failed husband. He tried to get the Catholic church to let him divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon so he could marry someone else, but the Pope would not allow it. In anger and arrogance King Henry simply abolished the Catholic Church from England entirely, and set up his own Church with himself as its head! He could then do as he wished, so he granted his own divorce. Of course, the Catholics in England at the time were not overly thrilled to have Henry for a Pope, especially as he went on to try to suppress the catholic catechism through force. From 1558 to 1829, Catholics in England were prohibited from practicing their faith by law.
As a result, the story continues, persecuted Catholics went "underground". Without the usual regular Catholic church services and teachings Catholic parents supposedly used this song to remind their children of the tenants of their faith as a kind of veiled memory aid.
Getting caught with anything in writing indicating you followed the Catholic faith could not only get you imprisoned, it could get you tortured and hanged. So, the gifts in the song contain hidden meanings to the teachings of the faith:
The "true love" is God Himself.
The "me" who receives the presents refers to every baptized person.
The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge which feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestling's, much in memory of the expression of Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered thee under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but thou wouldst not have it so..."
2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.
6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments
8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed
There are a large number of arguments against this theory, mainly focusing on the lack of published early evidence for the theory, and the fact that the tenants memorized are not purely Catholic (with the exception of the sacraments) and would have caused no problem with their open expression.
Musical Game
Another theory suggests the song possibly began as a Twelfth Night "memory-and-forfeits" musical game. One person acting as the leader would say a verse, then each of the players repeated the verse. The leader then added another verse and so on until one of the players made a mistake, with the player who erred having to pay a penalty, such as a offering up a kiss or a sweet. This is how the song was presented in its earliest known printed version, in the 1780 children's book Mirth Without Mischief. The song is apparently much older than this printed version, but it is not known exactly how much older. Textual evidence indicates that the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was not English in origin, but French. Three French versions of the song are known, and items mentioned in the song itself (the partridge, for example, which was not introduced to England from France until the late 1770s) are indicative of a French origin, so could not have been known widely in England until after that time.
It is possible that "The Twelve Days of Christmas" has been confused with (or is a transformation of) a song called "A New Dial" (also known as "In Those Twelve Days"), which dates to at least 1625 and assigns religious meanings to each of the twelve days of Christmas (but not for the purposes of teaching a catechism). In a manner somewhat similar to the memory-and-forfeits performance of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," the song "A New Dial" was recited in a question-and-answer format:
When are the twelve days of Christmas?
One thing we do know is that the Church in general celebrates twelve days of Christmas. In the Church, as in the synagogue, the day technically begins at sunset. Therefore, Christmas begins at sundown on 24 December, which we very appropriately call Christmas Eve. For this reason, Christmas Eve is the most special day of the season. The Christmas Season, which begins with Christmas Eve, ends on the eve of Epiphany, which is sundown on 5 January. Therefore, Christmas lasts twelve days, and the period from sundown on 24 December to sundown on 5 January is called the Twelve Days of Christmas. What we do know is that the twelve days of Christmas in the song signify the twelve days between the birth of Christ (Christmas, December 25) and the coming of the Magi (Epiphany, January 6). Although the specific origins of the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" are not known,
However, some of the days during Christmas have meanings of their own.
Sad, that I have time to think about this.