The question of the origins of the popular Christmas (or "Christmas") carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," has long divided carolers and carol critics alike. The mainline (though waning) opinion is that it is merely a colorful but nonsensical ditty flung together by some anonymous Victorian nursery-rhymer. A minority of addled fundamentalists imagine its verses to represent certain Christian dogmas, at one time employed either as a mnemonic device or as a code for use in unfriendly lands.

But modern source-critical methods of Christmas carol exegesis have greatly advanced our understanding of the true roots of the song (or "song"), allowing us to see, with academic certainty, just how it came about.