By Marilyn Stinson, Enterprise Grange
As the Community Service Coordinator for Enterprise Grange #48, I’m challenging ALL Granges, Grangers, and Friends to consider their local food pantries for the 12 Days of Christmas which starts on Christmas Day, using the song as a guideline. Let’s see what innovative items people can come up with. Let’s fill Community Service Reports with pictures of what they came up with.
For a previous year, the reasoning was:
Day 1. Pear Tree = can of pears.
Day 2. Turtle Doves = ??? turtles are in the sea and so is tuna, so Chicken of the Sea Tuna.
Day 3. French Hens = French cut green beans. (add a can of mushroom soup for a casserole)
Day 4. Calling Birds = oatmeal or dry cereal to call them with?? Birds like uncooked cereals.
Day 5, Five Gold Rings = rings of canned pineapple. Or spaghetti-O’s.
Day 6, Geese-a-laying = I had hens laying eggs so I shared. This year, I’ll use cans of corn to feed the geese.
Day 7, Swans a-swimming = chicken soup (swans taste like chicken??).
Day 8, Maids a-milking = cans of milk (put with the corn for corn chowder). Or the boxed regular milk.
Day 9, Ladies Dancing = Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix would be Swiss ladies dancing, I think.
Day 10, Lords-a-leaping is another challenge. I used baby wipes because once you open the package, the rest leap out at you. Tissues would do that, too. Maybe corn to pop??
Day 11, Pipers Piping = elbow macaroni looks like little elbow pipes and food pantries sometimes ask for pasta.
Day 12, Drummers Drumming = dry spaghetti for drumsticks, or frozen chicken drumsticks. Or isn’t there a snack cracker that is drumsticks?
(Donations of can openers would also be an extra item.)
The Twelve Days of Christmas start with Christmas Day and end with the eve of Epiphany on January 5th. The Twelve Days of Christmas dates back to English origins in the sixteenth century although the music is reputed to be French. The first publication date for The Twelve Days of Christmas (The 12 Days of Christmas) was 1780.