"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is a traditional and lengthy English Christmas carol. The song is based on the premise that the singer receives one gift per day from his or her "true love" over the twelve days immediately following Christmas Day. Each verse repeats all of the previous gifts listed; thus, one could say that the singer receives 364 gifts total--or one a day until next Christmas, when the process begins all over again.
Nickelodeon appearances and versions[]
Ren & Stimpy's Crock o' Christmas[]
A parody of the song, titled "The Twelve Days of Yaksmas", appeared on the album Ren & Stimpy's Crock o' Christmas. In this song, Ren and Stimpy receive a large package of Yaksmas presents sent to them from Ren's cousin, Svën, and proceed to list off all of them. As the song goes on, the duo, especially Ren, seem to get tired of the song.
"5 Golden Nicktoons"[]
"5 Golden Nicktoons" was a special programming event that Nickelodeon ran for the week of December 25-29, 1995, in which the regular daytime programming was extended by half an hour to run select episodes of Doug, Rugrats, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. The promotional spot advertising this programming event included a quick parody of the song, listing off "five golden Nicktoons, four French chefs, three dancing monsters, two heart-shaped eyes, and a hat with some hanging wieners."
Kenan and Kel[]
In "Merry Christmas, Kenan", Mrs. Quagmire starts talking about how much she loves Christmas carols and starts singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas", much to Kenan's annoyance. When she gets stuck, Kenan says she's at the last verse and then promptly escorts her out of Rigby's, singing his own lyrics to the song.
"The 12 Days of Nickmas"[]
As part of the Merry Nickmas spots, one segment, "The 12 Days of Nickmas", featured a parody of the song sung by the characters from SpongeBob SquarePants, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, The Wild Thornberrys, As Told By Ginger, The Fairly OddParents, Rocket Power, and Hey Arnold!.
A different version of the song was used for a 2022 event of the same name. It promoted the premieres of several Christmas episodes, specials, and movies such as The Great Nickmas Tree Sliming, SpongeBob SquarePants's "'Twas the Night Before Spongemas", The Loud House, Monster High, Reindeer in Here, the 2022 remake of Snow Day, and The NFL Nickmas Games.
Rugrats[]
In "Babies in Toyland", the Rugrats' parents sing the song on their way to the Christmas Land park. After they finish, Chas remarks that they should consider trimming it back to five days, and Charlotte agrees, saying that golden rings aren't something that can be topped.
The 2004 album Rugrats: Holiday Classics features a song titled "Twelve Days of Rugrats", in which the Rugrats list the things they watched on television at Christmas.
ChalkZone[]
In the episode "When Santas Collide", Penny sings the song to Rudy's family while Rudy is off substituting for one of ChalkZone's Santas.
The Backyardigans[]
This version was in the episode "The Action Elves Save Christmas Eve".
The Splat[]
In 2015, The Splat programming block on TeenNick produced a short promo featuring a version of the song listing things related to the shows featured on the block.
The Loud House[]
On December 5, 2016, Nick.com and Nickelodeon's YouTube channel posted a promotional video titled "Christmas Countdown", featuring a parody of the song counting down what the Loud kids have to celebrate the season. Each line was illustrated by clips from various episodes of the show.
On December 16, 2017, Nick.com and Nickelodeon's YouTube channel posted an original Loud House short titled "12 Days of Christmas", in which the eponymous family sing about what they got for Christmas, with the kids, from oldest to youngest, singing the lines for the first ten days and the parents, Lynn Sr. and Rita, singing the last two days. The verse distribution is as follows:
- Lori - "A phone plan for me and Bobby"
- Leni - "Two turtlenecks"
- Luna - "Three French horns"
- Luan - "Four awesome pranks"
- Lynn Jr. - "Five goals to score"
- Lincoln - "Six new Ace Savvys"
- Lucy - "Seven bats a-flying"
- Lana - "Eight yummy mud pies"
- Lola - "Nine pageant sashes"
- Lisa - "Ten beakers mixing"
- Lily and Lynn Sr. - "Eleven smelly diapers"
- Rita - "Twelve Louds a-looking" (referring to Lynn Sr. and the kids peeking at their presents)
A parody of this song called “The 12 Days of Rustmas” appeared in the episode “Just Snow with It”
SpongeBob SquarePants[]
"12 Days of Spongemas" Music Video 🎄 - New SpongeBob Holiday Song
On December 18, 2022, the official SpongeBob YouTube channel posted a parody of the song titled "12 Days of Spongemas".