The Ultimate 12 Day Christmas Gift Idea List

If you like sneaking around making your family and friends happy, this 12 day Christmas gift idea list will make your mission possible!

Though many people celebrate the twelve days of Christmas starting on the 13th or 14th of December (depending on whether they want to deliver the last gift on Christmas Eve or Christmas day), the 12 Days of Christmas actually start with Christmas Day and finish with the eve of Epiphany on 5th January. I guess I would like getting gifts no matter when they came!

Whichever you choose, you should drop off the first 12 day Christmas gift idea with a letter or poem explaining the operation and how you plan to carry it out. You can do things a couple of ways:

During a time when you don't think you will be noticed (check for anyone following you), drop off each daily gift on the recipient's porch or doorstep. In your first note, inform them that they should under no circumstances try to find you out. If they do, they risk the whole mission being called off. Your identity will be revealed on the 12th day of Christmas cheer.
If you will be unable to get the gifts to them each day, hide the gifts inside their home or with an insider (family member/room mate). Each day, enlist the help of one stranger to help you call the recipient and inform them of that day's gift location. One lady says, "Bank tellers, librarians, receptionists, local business owners and literally a stranger near a payphone were all willing to call for me to keep my identity a secret until the last day."

Here is my 12 Day Christmas Gift Idea List:

1. A Partridge in a Pear Tree - Can of pears, basket of fresh pears, or just a single pear with a Partridge Family Christmas CD or a small bird ornament

2. Two Turtle Doves - Turtle candies and Dove chocolates or Dove soap

3. Three French Hens - Gift certificate to KFC or another chicken restaurant, video of Chicken Run, cornish game hens, a hen plush toy with a little beret and French flag you make out of felt, homemade chicken dinner with French bread

4. Four Calling Birds - Cell phone cases, candy cell phones, phone book, clock that makes bird noises

5. Five Golden Rings - Gold napkin rings with winter napkins, donuts, can of pineapple rings, butterscotch lifesavers, gift certificate for onion rings

6. Six Geese a-Laying - Filled plastic eggs, chocolate cream-filled eggs, six eggs in a basket plus ingredients for omelets

7. Seven Swans a-Swimming - Origami swans made out of gift certificates, swan soaps, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake CD, bubble bath and a rubber duckie with a note attached explaining "this swan was in his ugly ducking stage"

8. Eight Maids a-Milking - Merry Maids gift certificate, jug of chocolate milk, eight different milk products, milk maid caramels, bath milk bubble bath

9. Nine Ladies Dancing - nine pairs of socks for their tired feet, ladyfinger cookies, Nutcracker book or video, Pirouette wafer cookies

10. Ten Lords a-Leaping - Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance CD or DVD, something with frogs, jar of hoppin' John soup mix,

11. Eleven Pipers Piping - Christmas CD with bagpipes, bubble pipes and bubble solution,

12. Twelve Drummers Drumming - Ice cream called Drumsticks, drum of popcorn, drum ornament, CD of bandmusic

After the twelve days of Christmas are over, you can send a card with a picture of your family with all the treats to let the recipient know your secret identity or you can follow up in person with a big cake to eat with them. Write and tell me how you do the whole thing! I would love to add your 12 day Christmas gift idea to this list.

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