One of the oldest Christmas songs, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” recounts a series of elaborate gifts bestowed upon someone during the course of the 12 days from Christmas (Dec 25th) to The feast of Epiphany (January 6th). The first known appearance of the lyric was a published version from 1780 in England. The version that is sung today comes from a 1909 arrangement by English composer Frederic Austin. This is where the elongated “five gold rings” first appeared.

The reason I included this song is because of the fantastic (and fun) job Straight No Chaser have done with it. They add several other Christmas songs and stray far from the rigid cumulative manner of the published song. This video helped the a cappella group formed in 1996 at Indiana University gain popularity and eventually led to them to a five-record deal with Atlantic Records in 2008.