Mouse, the practical one, suggested we should do another project together.  That always helps. Something along the lines of the Super Dede competition we did leading up to Christmas three years ago. We always have brilliant times when we work together and all our differences seem forgotten. Of course this year we are a bit late and Christmas is already upon us. We won’t be able to pull anything off before the 25th. Then someone suggested the Dedes could recreate the  famous english Christmas carol “Twelve Days of Christmas.” It has such a catchy tune and as the lyrics are so dada, it fits the Dedes to a tee. I am pretty sure you know the carol: it starts off with “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me one partridge in a pear tree” and then it continues for twelve days and every day the true love brings a new present, such as maids a milking or pipers piping, as well as all the   previous ones. So the list gets longer and longer.

Mouse printed out the lyrics and here is the original list of presents:

• A Partridge in a Pear Tree
• Two Turtle Doves
• Three French Hens
• Four Calling Birds
• Five Golden Rings
• Six Geese a Laying
• Seven Swans a Swimming
• Eight Maids a Milking
• Nine Ladies Dancing
• Ten Lords a Leaping
• Eleven Pipers Piping
• 12 Drummers Drumming

According to various sources on the internet the song has a catholic background and the gifts refer to some features from the bible. For example, the four calling birds are four apostles. Other sources say it has french roots and that catholics appropriated it when they weren’t allowed to practise openly in England between mid 1500 and 1800.  Anyway, the Dedes had the idea to bring all these gifts to the readers as they wanted to give something back. But when they saw what they have to organise their excitement plummeted. For example, they could organise eight maids to do the milking, but they only have one cow. Where would they get a partridge or swans? We don’t have any of those in the Dede community. When they looked on the internet to find where they can source everything, they found out that each year since 1984 PNC Wealth Management calculates how much it costs to buy all the presents mentioned in the song (Christmas price index). In 2015 the cost amounted to a whooping $154,000 US dollars (compared to $61,000 in 1984). Needless to say, the Dedes can’t afford to buy them and what would we do with a partridge in a pear tree anyway.

In the meantime, they have spent so much time on the research that they don’t want to let go of the idea and last night I found them huddling over the list discussing alternatives. I am curious!