Well, I pulled out "Oxford Book of Carols" and didn't even find 12 Days of Christmas, but there's a version in Ruth Crawford Seeger's "American Folk Songs for Christmas" and the notes refer you to "Folksongs of Florida" by Alton C. Morris, Univ. of Florida Press, p.416; Archive of American Folkt Song, Folklore Section, Library of Congress 989 A1; and game directions from "Folk Songs of Old New England" Eloise H. Linscott, copyright 1939, Macmillan, p.52

The song has a section explaining that 12 days of Christmas was used as a "forfeit" song, where each person has to sing it alone correctly or pay a forfeit.

Does that help at all?

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Let's talk about songbooks in this thread. this thread (click) is a better place to discuss the Twelve Days of Christmas. Thanks.
(but I made sure this message was in both threads, because of all the songbooks that are mentioned)
-Joe Offer-