12 Days of Christmas Word Search

A puzzle of the twelve gifts of the carol that prints with its answer key.

Name Date

Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.

0 of 20 words found

KBADNYMMIIPIIOJ

SCEDEEIGIGNAUUM

OATURTLEDOVESDB

HLSODLKERLHLWAP

ELJBWEISUDYMINI

RIPSBANEMRTAMCP

SNUWFPGDMIAIMII

MGLADIESINPDINN

ZBCNENGRNGPSNGG

WIESHGNCGSIUGBE

FRENCHHENSPMEGF

ODRUMMERSPENTST

ESLORDSPEARTREE

JOLAYINGQXSSCUB

PARTRIDGEBEQFII

This grid is wider and taller than its box. Slide it to see every letter.To drag, hold the first letter for a moment, then slide.Keyboard: Tab to the grid, arrow keys to move, Enter on the first and last letter.

PartridgePARTRIDGE
Pear treePEAR TREE
Turtle dovesTURTLE DOVES
French hensFRENCH HENS
Calling birdsCALLING BIRDS
Gold ringsGOLD RINGS
GeeseGEESE
LayingLAYING
SwansSWANS
SwimmingSWIMMING
MaidsMAIDS
MilkingMILKING
LadiesLADIES
DancingDANCING
LordsLORDS
LeapingLEAPING
PipersPIPERS
PipingPIPING
DrummersDRUMMERS
DrummingDRUMMING

20 words from the Twelve Gifts list.

Choose three words from the list. Write what each one has to do with the song.

Start from a list

Easy: words go across and down.

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Word list

Large print Lower-case letters Name and date line on paper

The puzzle changes as you go. See the puzzle

Answer key: 12 Days of Christmas Word Search

KBADNYMMIIPIIOJ

SCEDEEIGIGNAUUM

OATURTLEDOVESDB

HLSODLKERLHLWAP

ELJBWEISUDYMINI

RIPSBANEMRTAMCP

SNUWFPGDMIAIMII

MGLADIESINPDINN

ZBCNENGRNGPSNGG

WIESHGNCGSIUGBE

FRENCHHENSPMEGF

ODRUMMERSPENTST

ESLORDSPEARTREE

JOLAYINGQXSSCUB

PARTRIDGEBEQFII

PARTRIDGE, PEAR TREE, TURTLE DOVES, FRENCH HENS, CALLING BIRDS, GOLD RINGS, GEESE, LAYING, SWANS, SWIMMING, MAIDS, MILKING, LADIES, DANCING, LORDS, LEAPING, PIPERS, PIPING, DRUMMERS, DRUMMING

Next step Print the bird word search Make a word search from your class's own gift list

All 132 words

Days One to Seven 30

Beak A bird's bill.
Blackbird What the fourth day's colly gift really is; colly was a country word for the color of coal.
Calling birds Day four as it is sung now; the wording comes from a version published in 1909.
Chicken The common farm bird; a hen is a female one.
Covey A small flock of partridges.
Cygnet The name for the young of the seventh day's birds.
Feather One of the light growths that cover a bird.
Flock Many birds feeding or flying as one group.
French hens Day three: a trio of chickens; one song collector thought the first word just meant foreign.
Gaggle A flock of geese.
Gander A male goose.
Geese Day six: half a dozen big farm birds, each one on eggs.
Gold rings Day five: jewelry in the picture of the 1780 book, though some writers suspect pheasants.
Goldfinch A small finch once called a goldspink, another guess at what day five's gift meant.
Goose One of the sixth day's birds; a male is a gander.
Gosling The fluffy young of the sixth day's birds.
Laying What the sixth day's birds are busy doing: producing eggs.

Show all 132 words (115 more)

Days One to Seven, continued

Nest The bowl of twigs where a bird sits on its eggs.
Orchard Land planted with fruit trees, such as pears.
Partridge Day one's gift: a plump game bird, sent with a fruit tree.
Pear tree Where the first day's bird sits; some think the words began as perdrix, French for that bird.
Perch To rest on a branch, as the red-legged partridge does more often than the gray one.
Pheasant A long-tailed game bird; one theory says the five gold rings were ring-necked ones.
Pigeon A plump bird with a small head; doves belong to its family.
Pond Still water where geese and swans paddle.
Poultry Birds kept on a farm for eggs or meat, such as hens and geese.
Rooster A male chicken.
Swans Day seven: large white water birds with long necks.
Swimming What the seventh day's birds are doing on the water.
Turtle doves Day two: a pair of small, slender wild birds with a soft purring voice.

Days Eight to Twelve 23

Bagpipe A wind instrument whose player fills a flexible bag with air to sound the reeds.
Ballroom A large room for dancing.
Curtsy A bend of the knees made as a sign of respect, as by a lady.
Dairy A farm that keeps cows for their milk.
Dancing Moving in step to music, as the ladies of the song do.
Drummers Day twelve in today's song: players who beat out the rhythm; day nine in the 1780 book.
Drumming Beating a steady rhythm with sticks, the sound of the last verse.
Jig A lively dance.
Ladies Day nine as it is sung now, out on the dance floor; day eleven in the 1780 book.
Leaping Springing high into the air, as the lords do.
Lords Day ten as it is sung now; in the 1780 book they jump in on day twelve.
Maids Day eight: young women at work with cows and pails.
Milking The eighth day's chore, done by hand with a cow, a stool and a pail.
Milkmaid A dairy worker of old, the job of the song's eighth-day gift.
Noble A person of high rank or title, such as a lord or lady.
Pail A bucket, as for carrying milk.
Parade A public march with music.
Partner The person you dance with.
Pipers Day eleven as it is sung now: players of a wind instrument; day ten in the 1780 book.
Piping Sounding a shrill tune on a wind instrument, the eleventh day's work.
Rhythm The pattern of beats that a drummer keeps.
Snare A small two-headed drum with wires stretched across the bottom head.
Stool A backless seat, used at milking time.

Counting the Days 20

Dozen A set of twelve.
Eighth The day of the eight maids.
Eleventh The day of eleven pipers now, and of eleven ladies in the 1780 book.
Fifth The day of the five gold rings.
First The day of the partridge.
Fourth The day of the four colly, or calling, birds.
Ninth The day of nine ladies now, and of nine drummers in the 1780 book.
Pair Two that go together, like the turtle doves.
Pyramid Stack the twelve triangles of gifts and they build this pointed solid.
Second The day of the two turtle doves.
Seventh The day of the seven swans.
Seventy-eight The number of gifts in the twelfth verse alone: 12 and 11 and 10, down to 1.
Sixth The day of the six geese.
Tenth The day of ten lords now, and of ten pipers in the 1780 book.
Third The day of the three French hens.
Total The whole count: 364 gifts if every verse's gifts are sent again.
Triangle A three-sided shape; each day's count of gifts is a number that stacks into one.
Trio A set of three, like the French hens.
Twelfth The last day of the song; the Night named for it is the evening of January 5.
Twelve The number of days, of verses, and of drummers as the last verse is sung today.

Carol and the Old Game 22

Breath A writer of 1882 said the last verse is to be said in one of these.
Broadside A large sheet printed on one face only; old ones from Newcastle carry the song.
Carol A joyful song for Christmas time.
Chant Words said aloud to a beat; a writer of 1855 called the song a schoolboy's Christmas one.
Circle How the players sat: the lines went round it in turn.
Folk song Music handed down among ordinary people, with no known writer.
Forfeit The penalty a player paid for a slip in the old party game.
Game What the carol most likely began as: a contest of remembering, played by children.
Gift A present; each verse adds a new one.
Leader The player who began the game by saying the first line.
London The city where the words were printed in a children's book, about 1780.
Memory What the old game tested: each player had to repeat every gift so far.
Mirth Merriment; the 1780 book that printed the song has this word first in its title.
Mischief Naughty play; the 1780 book promised mirth without it.
Mistake A slip in the list of gifts; each one cost a player a forfeit.
Newcastle The English city whose printers sold the song on single sheets.
Rhyme The song counts as a nursery one of these as well as a carol.
Sent What my true love did with each gift, in the old words; many now sing gave.
True love The sender of every gift in the song.
Tune A melody; the one most often sung today comes from an arrangement published in 1909.
Verse One part of a song; this one has twelve, each a line longer than the last.
Woodcut A picture printed from a carved block; the 1780 book was full of them.

Gifts in Other Old Versions 27

Badgers Burrowing animals with short legs and long front claws, the eleventh gift in a version of 1867.
Bells The twelfth day's gift in the 1842 book, where they ring.
Bleating The cry of the lambs.
Bulls Male cattle, roaring in versions of about 1840 and 1882.
Canary birds The fourth day's gift in a book of nursery rhymes from 1842.
Colly birds The fourth day's gift as first printed in 1780: blackbirds.
Dancers The eleventh gift in the 1882 version.
Ducks A story of 1864 puts these on day four, quacking.
Fat hens The third gift in the story of 1864.
Fiddlers Violin players, the last gift in a version of 1882.
Fifers Players of small shrill flutes; they stand in for the pipers in a version of 1858.
Golden rings Day five as many sing it now, one syllable longer than the 1780 print.
Hares Long-eared runners, sent on day eight in a version from about 1840.
Hounds Hunting dogs; a version printed in 1900 has eight of them running.
Juniper tree In a version of about 1840 the first gift is part of this evergreen, with no partridge.
Lambs Young sheep, the ninth gift in a version taken down in 1877.
Mistletoe A version printed in 1905 adds part of a bough of this plant to day two.
Mother The sender of the gifts in books of 1842 and 1846, in place of a true love.
Mowing Cutting grass: the work of the ten men in the 1882 version.
Quacking What the ducks do in the 1864 story.
Roaring The noise of the bulls.
Running What the hares and the hounds do in other versions.
Sailing What the ten ships are doing in the 1842 book.
Ships Sent on day ten, a-sailing, in the 1842 book.
Spinning Making thread on a wheel: the work of the eleven ladies of 1842.
Squabs Young pigeons, seven of them swimming in the version printed in 1900.
Yule An old word for Christmas; a Scottish song about the days of this name runs to thirteen.

Twelve Days on the Calendar 10

Bonfire A big outdoor blaze; lighting one is an old Twelfth Night custom.
Christmas December 25, the day the song's count of days most often starts from.
December The month the twelve days begin in.
Evening The time of day when Twelfth Night is kept.
Feast A large meal for many people; Twelfth Night was a time for one.
January The month in which Twelfth Night falls, on the fifth.
Mince pie A Christmas pastry with a sweet chopped filling, eaten after the game at a Twelfth Day party.
New Year It arrives partway through the twelve days.
Supper The evening meal; the old game was played before it on Twelfth Day night.
Weather People once watched this on each of the twelve days to guess the twelve months ahead.

How this list was compiled: Own work: the word list and every clue were written for this page. The gifts, their order in the old printings, the other versions and the history of the carol were checked on 16 October 2026 against the English Wikipedia article The Twelve Days of Christmas (song) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_(song)) and against the text of a broadside printed in Newcastle no later than 1825, as transcribed on Wikisource (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_(1825)). Twelfth Night was checked in the Wikipedia article Twelve Days of Christmas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas) and in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (https://www.ahdictionary.com/), where the other spellings and meanings were checked too; colly was checked in Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/colly). Licence: own work

How it works

Every puzzle dealt from the opening list of this 12 days of Christmas word search hides all twelve gifts, Partridge to Drummers, with Pear tree and what the gifts are doing: Laying, Swimming, Milking, Dancing, Leaping, Piping and Drumming.

Read the full guide

Six more lists, from the birds to the calendar

Days One to Seven adds Blackbird, Gander and Cygnet to the first seven gifts, and Days Eight to Twelve adds Milkmaid, Bagpipe and Curtsy to the last five. Counting the Days runs First to Twelfth. Carol and the Old Game has Forfeit and Broadside, Gifts in Other Old Versions has Hares, Ships and Fiddlers, and Twelve Days on the Calendar has January and Bonfire.

How the words have changed

The words were printed in a London children's book about 1780, with no music. It has four colly birds, colly being a dialect word for black as coal, and it ends with nine drummers, ten pipers, eleven ladies and twelve lords. Calling birds and today's order come from a version published in 1909.

Sung through, with every earlier gift sent again in each verse, the carol adds up to 364 gifts.
The carol was most likely a memory game first: a player who slipped on a gift paid a forfeit.

Questions and answers

Is this 12 days of Christmas word search printable?

Yes, and free. The print is two pages on Letter or A4: the puzzle, with a name and date line and three words to write about, then the answer key.

Does the puzzle say calling birds or colly birds?

Calling birds is on the opening list, as most people sing it. Colly birds, the 1780 wording, is in Gifts in Other Old Versions, beside Canary birds and Golden rings.

What are the 12 gifts in order?

A partridge in a pear tree, two turtle doves, three French hens, four calling birds, five gold rings, six geese, seven swans, eight maids, nine ladies, ten lords, eleven pipers and twelve drummers, as the carol is usually sung now.

Is there an easy list for young children?

Short and Easy has 12 words of 4 or 5 letters, such as Geese, Swans, Maids, Lords, Carol and Bells.

All 132 words

Days One to Seven 30

Days One to Seven, continued

Days Eight to Twelve 23

Counting the Days 20

Carol and the Old Game 22

Gifts in Other Old Versions 27

Twelve Days on the Calendar 10

How it works

Six more lists, from the birds to the calendar

How the words have changed

Questions and answers

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