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From Dave Seville & The Chipmunks to John Denver & The Muppets, there’s no shortage of artists who have recorded a version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” (Others include Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Kenny G, former-American Idol contestant Paris Bennett, Bob & Doug McKenzie, and the Baby Einstein Music Box Orchestra.)
And if you’ve recently been in any setting where commerce is involved, you’ve probably heard the song 100 times this month already. Has a part of your brain been singing along? Can you name the twelve things the singer’s true love gave to him?
Take the Quiz: What’d Your True Love Give To You?
[By the way, the twelve days of Christmas are the days between December 25 (Christmas) and January 6 (Epiphany). Also, Snopes recently posted a thorough debunking of many myths associated with the song.]
Comments (22)
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Quiz is not working properly. First of all, you have to have it exact for capitalization. Once you make a mistake on that, you cannot go back and change it. The quiz will not move forward. Second time I tried to go into it, the clock started ticking and would not let me move forward.
posted by bzzyb on 12-16-2008 at 12:03 pm
Got it, with 2:37 to spare.
posted by vickey on 12-16-2008 at 12:09 pm
Oh you pipers piping! But thanks to Alvin and the Chipmunks I got the rest. Awesome quiz.
posted by Tricia on 12-16-2008 at 12:11 pm
bzzyb — What browser are you using? Seems to be working fine here, and I don’t think we even have a setting that mandates exact capitalization.
posted by Jason English on 12-16-2008 at 12:27 pm
I had a really hard time getting it to work too. I had to reload the page about 10 times. I’m using IE6 though.
I finally got ‘em done with 3:47 left.
posted by Heather Dawn on 12-16-2008 at 12:32 pm
I’m using IE6 as well. First time I’ve ever had any issues with the quiz though.
posted by bzzyb on 12-16-2008 at 12:40 pm
Finished in 56 seconds (4:04 remaining)
posted by Jeff on 12-16-2008 at 1:51 pm
Got em with 4:09 to spare! 51 seconds!! Wooooo!!!
and no problem with Chrome
posted by Amy D on 12-16-2008 at 1:54 pm
I got it in under a minute with no issues — of course, we’d just had a caroling session on Saturday so it was easy. It would have been nice if you’d specified in advance that we should just list objects as, for example, “swimming” rather than “a-swimming” (which is how I learned it, to keep the meter when the noun only has one syllable).
posted by Gary on 12-16-2008 at 2:00 pm
Amy, Heather and Jeff blew me away (it took me exactly half the alotted time). I don’t know what Gary is talking about though. I entered “7 swans a swimming” and “6 geese a laying” and so on. No problems, unless you consider forgetting “9 ladies dancing” for 2 minutes a problem.
posted by Jim on 12-16-2008 at 2:15 pm
It stopped taking my answers after a certain number. The clock was tick and I kept typing, but it wouldn’t take anymore after five golden rings, which were originally five ringed pheasants, so all the gifts before eight were actually birds.
posted by Sara on 12-16-2008 at 2:31 pm
Grumble @ The Simpsons…
8 maids a milking
7 maids a milking
6 maids a milking
5 maaaiiids a milking
and a japanese transistor radio =P
posted by Jack on 12-16-2008 at 3:24 pm
43 seconds here. I always forget the 12th day, probably because by the time you get to it, you’re so sick of the song that you just want it to be over.
posted by Jenn on 12-16-2008 at 3:37 pm
I keep thinking of the Frank Sinatra version “and a most lovely lavendar tie.”
posted by beth on 12-16-2008 at 3:49 pm
2:59 left on the clock.
I didn’t even enter numbers and it accepted my answers. (e.g. “geese a laying” instead of “6 geese a laying”)
posted by Jason! on 12-16-2008 at 4:30 pm
Done in :59 …of course we have the illustrated book at home, and I just read/sang it to my kids last night, so I probably should’ve beaten 59 seconds!
posted by Brucey on 12-16-2008 at 4:32 pm
@Jack: And all that other stuff! :-) Now, that one would be a challenge, I can usually remember 10 of the 11 but not in the right order.
posted by Rachel on 12-16-2008 at 4:33 pm
It took me a while because I kept thinking of the Eddie Izzard version: “12 monkeys mating… FIVE GOLDEN RIIIIIINNGGGGSSSS!!!!!
posted by Jason! on 12-16-2008 at 4:33 pm
I got it done in 1:15 since I initially tried to put in a hyphen in “a-swimming” and there are a couple different orders and things I’ve heard for 10-12. Close enough. :)
posted by Julia on 12-16-2008 at 6:33 pm
4:20 to spare…40 seconds!! Thanks to all those middle school keyboarding classes!!
posted by Christina on 12-16-2008 at 6:49 pm
4:18. I’m a high school choir director…sigh…
posted by Mike on 12-16-2008 at 7:50 pm
4:15 left. This is probably the only one of these I’ve completed successfully in that quickly. I’m really a dork for Christmas.
posted by Lindsey on 12-16-2008 at 10:11 pm