THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
As performed by "Straight No Chaser"

When I was putting together the Christmas program for my Junior High, we needed a fun, upbeat song to finish a set for one of my choirs, but nothing in my school library quite fit the bill. I have always loved this version of the 12 days of Christmas, but couldn't find an arrangement of it anywhere, and the fully a cappella version performed by groups like Straight no Chaser and BYU Vocal Point (with 8 part splits and beat boxing) was a bit much for my Jr. High kids to tackle, so I wrote this arrangement where the piano part gets to fill in some of the chaos of meter changes and song substitutions. My kids loved it so much that when I moved over to the high school, I revised it, cleaned up the harmonies a bit, and we performed it with my high school Concert Choir. It was definitely a favorite for both the students and the audience. But if you're going to perform this one, you have to promise not to take it too seriously. (When we did this with my choirs - I threw my music off the music stand and stormed off of the stage in the middle of the song - somewhere around "once there was a snowman" - feigning frustration and disgust, and the students finished the last part of the song on their own. We had SO much fun with it, and the kids are STILL singing these harmonies from "Africa")

For instant download, click the buttons below, or you can preview the PDF and a midi recording of the song - it's not a great recording, just a midi playback from finale, sorry! I hope to get a real recording of the piece sometime soon.