The Twelve Days of Christmas

by Ilse Plume (Illustrator)

Drawing inspiration from centuries-old illuminated manuscripts, Ilse Plume creates an Italian Renaissance setting for the lyrics of "The Twelve Days of Christmas." On each day a beautiful, shy, young noblewoman receives a gift from her handsome Romeo.

Genres: Christmas, Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Ilse Plume is an internationally renowned children's book author and illustrator who has illustrated stories from Italy, Latvia, Russia, and Sweden. She was inspired to illustrate children's books by her daughter, and her love of tales around the world was nurtured by her grandfather.

Her books include: The Bremen Town Musicians, which received the Caldecott Honor, and, most recently, The Farmer in the Dell. She has shown her work in exhibitions at the Lincoln Public Library and the DeCordova Museum in Massachusetts, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Ilse has an M.F.A. and B.F.A. from Drake University, and studied printmaking at the Santa Reparata Studio in Florence, Italy. She is therecipient of the 1985 Ezra Jack Keats Award. She has taught at numerous institutions, including Iowa State University, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She currently teaches at the School for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and has just completed a book about St. Francis.

Reviews

[Bhg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why alter the lyrics? This is the only version I've EVER read that has 9 drummers drumming, 10 pipers piping, 11 ladies dancing , and 12 lords a leaping instead of 9 ladies dancing, 10 lords a leaping, 11 pipers, and 12 drummers. Since the ladies stand for the 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit (Haggia Sophia in Greek and as Sophia is a woman's name and a clever substitution for the 9 Muses - the Greeks didn't get it all wrong), the 10 lords = the 10 Commandments, the 11 pipers = the 11 faithful apostles, and the 12 drummers = the Apostle Creed altering the gender and the instrument has some significance because they completely alter its meaning. I submit that they were intended.

Consider when it was published: 1990. It was about that time that the song's religious significance became widely known - secularists found their enjoyment in what they supposed to be a nonsensical folk song spoilt. Catholics even had the gall to document its use to teach the Faith during in Elizabethan persecution. There is nothing distinctively Catholic about the song but it's Christian symbolism is pretty evident. There are sites that give a verse from Scripture for each number.

Not content to alter the lyrics, Plume wants you to know what she thinks of the Christian significance of the song. Look at the back cover. The Latin tag "Per aspera ad astra" (through thorns to the stars) under the drawing of a monk says it all. The monk would have capitalized the word Astra. Unless he was copying Virgil, he'd have used the phrase after Emperor Constantines famous phrase "In hoc signo vinces" - abbreviated as IHS and translated as "In this sign (Christ's cross)I conquer" Modern secularists rejoice to see the phrase on a package of Pall Mall cigarettes, as NASA's motto, and its use by the Cosmos worshipping Carl Sagan.

Plume's illustrations, as delightful as they are, cannot mitigate her attempt to remove Christianity from Christmas. It's particularly disappointing to me because I had admired her work on Jane Langton's The Hedgehog Boy. It's clear in re-reading that book that Ilse Plume doesn't particularly admire or respect Christianity, or Christians, very much.