On the 6th Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me

six geese a laying...

fiiiiiive golden riiiings

four colly birds

three French hens

two turtle doves

and a partridge in a pear tree!

In Genesis 1 it says that God created everything about our planet and He said it was good. Then He made us, and He said it was very good. Some scholars believe that when it says "God said..." that actually the word in Hebrew would be better translated "God SANG..." I think that's beautiful. As an artist I find this to be one of the most exciting qualities of God. Anyway, He took six days to complete His creation and that could be what the "six geese a laying" represent on day six - the birth of our planet. Find your download on 4shared or Box. Links will be available until 10 Jan 2011.

On the 5th Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me

fiiiiive gooooolden riiiiiings!

four colly birds

three French hens

two turtle doves

and a partridge in a pear tree!

In our journey through the song, the five golden rings stand for the first five books of the Old Testament, known as the Torah or the Pentateuch. Did you know that the early Jews had to memorize the entire five books? Before it was available to every individual in print, audio, or as an iPhone app it was shared orally and memorized. The first five books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. They present the early history of the faith, the old covenant, and the whole reason we need Jesus! This download includes five fun versions of the golden ring. Hopefully one of these rings will work for your layout. :) You can grab it on 4shared or Box.

Day 1 revisited

Wow, my fun little freebie project is turning into something of a headache! I had a request to load Day 1 on Box.net, so you can grab it here if you're having trouble with 4shared. And just for fun, my favorite version of the 12 Days of Christmas, performed by Relient K.

On the 4th Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me

four colly birds...

three French hens

two turtle doves

and a partridge in a pear tree.

According to a few websites the modern version of the fourth day that says "calling birds" might have been mistranslated from "colly birds," which is an old English nickname for a blackbird. That could be, since I can think of at least one other rhyme that refers to blackbirds. Well, some believe that the difference between calling and colly might debunk the Christian theory of the song. The theory being if it's calling birds it represents the four gospels. I don't know why colly birds would force it to NOT represent them though... I mean if French hens can represent faith, hope, and love, why can't blackbirds represent the gospels? I think it's more about the number. Well, anyway, the four gospels are the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and they all tell the story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, from four different points of view.

Download from 4shared or Box.

On the 3rd Day of Christmas

my true love gave to me

three French hens...

...two turtle doves

and a partridge in a pear tree.

Here's yesterday's French hens. You may have noticed from yesterday's turtle dove that there was only one dove in the zip. I hope you will understand that sometimes I will only include the graphic once and you can duplicate it how ever many times needed. That won't be the case for every file, but if there are no major differences needed I'll only include it once. So for this download there is one hen, and you can "clone" her to make three. Get it? Clone? Hehe. :)

So what do the three French Hens represent? Well, according to this tradition we're looking at, the three French Hens represent the three virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love from 1 Corinthians 13:13. But I wonder if they could also represent the trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

You can download from 4shared or Box. Thank you Jody for the recommendations! Please let me know which download works best for you.

Broken Links

Ok guys, I'm getting lots of comments about broken links. I can see in 4shared that I've gotten LOTS of downloads of the first two days, and I tested them to make sure they would download. So I think it must be a 4shared problem based on how you are describing what's happening. So I would ask that you keep trying, and maybe give me a suggestion of what download sites you have had the best luck with. Maybe I need to have another option... So, hoping to hear from you and thanks for being patient! I'm glad so many of you are interested in this little project! :)

Running Late

Just a quick note to say the 3rd day download will probably have to wait until tomorrow. I have a lot going on today and won't be home until late. So you may get two downloads tomorrow. Thanks for understanding! :)

On the 2nd Day of Christmas...

... my true love gave to me

two turtle doves...

...and a partridge in a pear tree.

I'm so glad that you all are excited to get the downloads and hear what the strange lyrics may represent! I wanted to remind you that no one knows exactly what the song's origins are, so the meanings I'm listing here are just one theory. But it's the theory I liked the most and it's my blog! :)

So according to this tradition, the two turtle doves represent the two testaments that the Bible is broken into. The first being the old covenant with Abraham, and the second being the new covenant with Jesus the Messiah.

So enjoy the download! You can click the image or here.

1st Day Download

Well, shoot! Apparently I didn't get the download link in the post correctly. I had to giggle at one of the commentors who said "bad links are a good way to get comments." Sorry about that! It should be working now!

On the 1st Day of Christmas...

...my true love gave to me

a partridge in a pear tree!

In Germany families put up their Christmas decorations a few days before Christmas and then leave them up until 3 Kings Day, or Epiphany. The song "The 12 Days of Christmas" refer to the time between Christmas and Epiphany.

I was doing some research to see when the days start (on the 25th or 26th) and I found a website with a discussion about what each of the days in the song means. According to Catholic tradition the song was a mnemonic device to teach the catechism to kids. While the meanings proposed by tradition may not be the real origin of the song, I really loved the ideas and wanted to share each day with you here. So, there will be a freebie each day representing the "gift" given on that day and a Christian explanation of that day.

So... A partridge in a pear tree refers to Jesus the Messiah being the ultimate gift and a protector of His people. The scripture reference to support this theory is Luke 13:34, "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered you under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but you would not have it so . . . ."

Click here or the image above to download today's freebie.

a Christmas whim

a collaboration kit by the ahhhscrap design team.