On the First Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me…

Partridge in a Pear Tree – 12 Days of Christmas Series Acrylic on canvas board 5″x7″

If you finished that with “A Beautiful Painting of Partridge in a Pair Tree” – then you’d be right!

Painting series are so much fun to do and when is there a better time than the holiday season? “Partridge in a Pear Tree” is a 5″x7″ acrylic painting on canvas board. I tend to be a bit ambitious sometimes – so I am painting a series based on the 12 Days of Christmas to coincide with the first 12 days of December!

In the spirit of the project, I decided to some research (I can be a little nerdy sometimes and am fascinated by stories that tell the origin or where things come from). Here are some of the fun facts that I found out about the song!

The song was originally thought to be English in origin as it was published in 1780 in the children’s book Mirth Without Mischief, however researchers now believe that it actually dates back further and came from French roots.
In modern society we celebrate the time before December 25th as the holiday season, however the song actually is referring to old tradition of the Christmas season beginning on December 25th and lasting the 12 days after until January 6th (Epiphany).
The song was not fitted to its melody until 1909, by English composer Fredric Austin.
There is also a lot of interesting discussion on the meaning of song verses. There’s one perspective which lays it all out (there’s a link below) that each verse has specific religious meaning. There is some doubt as to the authenticity of the source though.
Translations seem to have some interesting discrepancies as well (maybe more on that later)!

What are your thoughts? Do you have a favorite part of the song or know more about it’s origin or a version that you have a memory of growing up?

Extra Bonus:
So in case it is not exciting enough that I will be releasing a painting a day for the next 12 (or 11 more?) days, I also am listing them on my new Etsy shop! So that means that you have the possibility of being able to add this beautiful painting (or the others) to your collection or gift it to a special someone for Christmas. Maybe you want the whole one of a kind series to deck your halls for the holiday? You’ll have to be the first click the buy button on Etsy. And as my gift to you, free shipping within the US (more details on the site).

Be sure to like me on Facebook (follow me on Twitter) so you can see when the new one goes up and follow along in the fun!

“MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR”

(Sorry, I had to!)

Here’s some of the links I looked at for my info: