The Twelve Gifts of Christmas
1963 single by Allan Sherman
"The Twelve Gifts of Christmas" is a song parody written and performed by Allan Sherman based on the classic Christmas song "The Twelve Days of Christmas". The song reached #5 on the Billboard Christmas Chart in 1963. A noted jukebox record supplier stated that if the record was released earlier, it "might have been a hot number." The song subsequently appeared on Sherman's 1964 album, For Swingin' Livers Only! The song was arranged by Lou Busch.
Lyrics
The lyrics of the song consist of a series of gifts that Sherman lists off. Unlike in the original, each gift is only mentioned once after the fifth verse up through the final verse. In some verses, Sherman adds more details about the first gift.
First day: A Japanese transistor radio.
Second day: Green polka-dot pajamas (The radio is a "Nakashuma", presumably the manufacturer.)
Third day: A calendar book with the name of his insurance man. (The radio is "the Mark 4 model, that's the one that's discontinued".)
Fourth day: A simulated alligator wallet.
“The Twelve Gifts of Christmas” enters the record as 1963 single by Allan Sherman. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Twelve, Gifts and Christmas can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17030014. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1963 and 1964.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Twelve Gifts of Christmas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.