On the fifth day of Christmas. . .
On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me . . .
Five canning rings!
.
The Fourth Day of Christmas
Four calling birds,
.
The Third Day of Christmas
Three fat sheep,
.
The Second Day of Christmas
Two spitting llamas,
>
The first day of Christmas!
… And a Parrot on a Fairrryyyyy!
.
New Style, cost of 5 Canning Rings: $1.70
Old (Classic) Style, cost of 5 Gold Rings: $1,070.00
.
That’s for wide-mouth canning rings and lids… hey, it’s Christmas. Time to splurge!
And speaking of splurging, how about those gold rings? Actually, I picked middle of the road, with 14K Yellow Gold Men’s & Women’s Wedding Bands 5mm light half round
They cost $214 each, not including any shipping costs.
So today we added an extra zero in the number for the Classic Style, and for the first time, it costs more for the Classic Christmas than a New Style one. However, the total is still more for New Style.
Total to date:
New Style – $1,971.70
Classic Style – $1.533.00
Stay tuned to see which one ends up being the most expensive overall!
On the fourth day of Christmas. . .
On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me . . .
The Fourth Day of Christmas
Four Calling Birds!
.
The Third Day of Christmas
Three Fat Sheep!
.
The Second Day of Christmas
Two Spitting Llamas!
.
The first day of Christmas!
… And a Parrot on a Fairrryyyyy!
.
New Style, cost of 4 Calling Birds: $0
Old (Classic) Style, cost of 4 Colly Birds: $0
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But wait! Just what IS a colly bird???
The verse as sung today as four calling birds is actually a corruption of the English word colly or collie. So, it’s really referring to “four colly birds” or “four collie birds”.
In England a coal mine is called a colliery and colly or collie is a derivation of this and means black like coal. So that makes a colly bird a black bird.
Blackbird
Both our four calling birds and the four colly birds are wild birds, so counted as free.
Therefore, today the costs come out even, and the total stays the same.
Total to date:
New Style – $1,970
Classic Style – $463
On the third day of Christmas. . .
On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me . . .
The Third Day of Christmas
Three fat sheep!
.
Two Spitting Llamas
.
- The first day of Christmas!
… And a Parrot on a Fairrryyyyy!
.
New Style, cost of 3 Shetland Sheep (average price): $750
Old (Classic) Style, cost of 3 French Hens: $30
New style still more expensive!
But about those French Hens. There is some debate to what they are. For the purpose of deciding on cost, I went with this interpretation:
A French Hen is a Turkey. In Gaelic the Turkey is called Cearc-Fhrangach (literally, French Hen). Turkeys were very popular among the French nobility as early as the mid 16th century as they were much more tasty and tender than than the other large feast birds eaten at that time such as cormorant, heron peacock, and swan.
So I got the price for heritage turkey poults and went from there.
Total to date:
New Style – $1,970
Classic Style – $463
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On the second day of Christmas. . .
On the Second day of Christmas my true love gave to me. . .
The Second Day of Christmas
Two Spitting Llamas. . .
- The first day of Christmas!
… And a Parrot on a Fairrryyyyy!
New style, Cost of two llamas: $400
Classic style, Cost of two turtle doves: $380
Looks like the new choice is still more expensive than the classics!
Total to date:
New Style – $1,220
Classic Style – $433
Stay tuned for Day Three!
On the first day of Christmas. . .
“The Twelve Days of Christmas” is a well-known Christmas carol. What gets a little confusing is most people think it’s the twelve days BEFORE Christmas, but it’s really supposed to be AFTER Christmas:
“Contrary to much popular belief, these are not the twelve days before Christmas, but in most of the Western Church are the twelve days from Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany (January 6th; the 12 days count from December 25th until January 5th). In some traditions, the first day of Christmas begins on the evening of December 25th with the following day considered the First Day of Christmas (December 26th). In these traditions, the twelve days begin December 26 and include Epiphany on January 6.” – The Voice
Then there’s the whole deal about the crazy presents. They’re definitely from a different era. I mean, who wants this laundry list of gifts?
- A partridge in a pear tree,
- Two turtle doves,
- Three french hens,
- Four colly birds,
- Five gold rings,
- Six geese laying,
- Seven swans swimming,
- Eight maids milking,
- Nine drummers drumming,
- Ten pipers piping,
- Eleven ladies dancing, and
- Twelve lords leaping.
Some of them sound intriguing, but others are a little questionable. And how much did all that cost?
I decided to mix things up a bit, and do part of the days before Christmas, in the popular style, and part of the days after Christmas, in the classic style. And while I’m at it, a little comparison of the cost for the two sets of gifts. Is the classic true love more expensive, or is eccentric country more costly?
So let us start at the beginning, day 1, always a good place to start! We’re mixing it up eccentric country style, so here we go!
On the first day of Christmas
my true love gave to me –
The first day of Christmas!
… A Parrot on a Fairrryyyyy!
Cost of African Grey Parrot: $800
Cost of Resin Fairy Statue: $20
Old school, cost of partridge: $3.00 for a Chukar Partridge Chick
Cost of Pear Tree, 7 feet tall: $50
Looks like the classic style would be cheaper, at about $53. But although the new version comes to $820, parrots are like MasterCard, priceless!
But then, I love eccentric Christmases!