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That’s what the lyrics say though.
On the X day of Christmas my true love gave to me, X [item], X-1 [item], etc.
The song explicitly states they give this stuff every day.
I’ve always taken it as they’re tabulating the gifts:
“Wow, today he gave me three french hens! Plus I have the two turtle doves from yesterday and the partridge in a pear tree from Christmas day!”
Only if you take it literally and I don’t think it was intended to be taken that way.
“on the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.”
It takes a bit of mental gymnastics to assert that on the second day of Christmas he did not send two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.
If I said yesterday I gave my friend a pork pie and today I gave my friend some spaghetti and a pork pie, you would not come to the conclusion that my friend did not receive a second pork pie.
I’d say it depends on whether you were singing it to me or not. Songs kind of have to keep these things brief a lot of the time. Also, the lyrics of this song don’t make much sense to begin with. 🤷
I’d be interested if this sort of exaggeration humor was common in Victorian England. Giving them all those things each day has a very “Lucy and Ethel at the chocolate factory” vibe that would be very amusing after a wassail or two.
All songs should be taken literally, which is why I eat love and prayers, and have a restraining order against me for trying to drag Hozier into a church at knifepoint.
Either interpretation is valid, though. Either one is an absurd amount of gifts, I would not put it past the gifter to have made an extravagant display of re-giving the stuff from days before each day.
