The Twelve Days of Christmas

The Twelve Days of Christmas is the period of time that occurs starting with Christmas day and continuing on through to the first week of January. The 12 Days of Christmas does not occur the 12 days prior to Christmas. The period before Christmas is known as Advent.
The 12 days of Christmas is also known as the period of Christmastide. During Christmastide, the way people celebrate the holiday season varies slightly.

The 12 days of Christmas reflects a major component of the Christmas history. As we know Christmas day represents the birth date of Jesus Christ. The 12 days of Christmas represents the time period in which the 3 Kings from the region of Arabia decided to visit the baby Jesus. Traveling from their homeland they traveled to Bethlehem to see the infant. When they arrived, they presented gifts of great value, gold, frankincense and myrrh to Jesus.


I liked this article that explains The Twelve Days of Christmas and they even say that it is probably the most misunderstood by people like me who don't know what they're talking about. I came across this article last year when I was trying to come up with a neat why of sending Christmas presents to Jeremy when he was in Iraq. I never knew that The Twelve DSays of Christmas was after Christmas!