Purple bandReady now · Open and print today

The Twelve Days of Christmas

From The Nursery Rhymes of England, collected by J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps

This rhyme comes from The Nursery Rhymes of England, collected by J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps in the nineteenth century. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is a cumulative song—each verse builds on the one before. Children played a game with it: each child repeated all the gifts in order, and paid a forfeit for every mistake. The twelve days of Christmas begin on Christmas Day and end on the evening before Epiphany, January 6th. This story-rhyme helps children practise memory, counting, and the joy of giving. This text reflects its era.

Band

Purple · Pre-readers and first readersTypical starting range: ages 4–5

Length

short · about 342 words in 6 sections · 4 pictures

Source

The Nursery Rhymes of England, J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps and William Bell Scott

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (6 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Colouring page
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

Report a concern about this reader · What’s in a HummingRead reader