Having been subjected to—or enjoying (your choice here)—holiday music for several looong months, it’s time to co-opt at least one song for our own purposes! So I’m picking on The 12 Days of Christmas, which itself subverted the original meaning of those twelve days.

As WhyChristmas? explains:

The 12 Days of Christmas start on Christmas Day and last until the evening of the 5th January. . . . [They] have been celebrated in Europe since before the middle ages. . . . The 12 Days each traditionally celebrate a feast day for a [Christian] saint and/or have different celebrations.

So I retain the celebration of the original 12 Days, and the gift-giving spirit of the song—for this celebration of tea.

Because tea involves community, ritual, health, friendship, celebration—all good things to enjoy as we move into the winter season.

On the First Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me

Because of course you have to start with day one, which originally, in the Christian tradition, was to celebrate the birth of Jesus—but now is a partridge in a Pear tree.

Which is something that I have never seen. Do partridges ever roost in pear trees?

Regardless, pears have been enjoyed since pretty much forever, and have been cultivated already in antiquity. Their sweetness pairs well with green tea, as in this green aroma tea blend, Sweet Pear, which includes pear pieces and orange blossoms.

The brew proves how beautifully pear fruitiness blends with orange blossom floral.

And as far as partridges go, they are a game bird native to the Old World and were introduced to Virginia in 1889.

They make their nests on the ground and tend to run rather than fly, making the pear tree thing suspicious. However, their proclivity for cultivated areas may include fruit trees after all.

Either way, Sweet Pear tea is a fitting gift for your true love, or yourself, any day of the holiday season! Available at TeaHaus.

Sources:
“The 12 days of Christmas,” Whychristmas.com.
“Partridge,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/animal/partridge.
“Partridge,” The Wonder of Birds, http://www.thewonderofbirds.com.