12 Days of Christmas Free Printable Gift Tags
Free printable gift tags for the 12 Days of Christmas, plus lots of gift ideas! Gift one gift each day for extra holiday spirit!
Ahh, the 12 Days of Christmas. Love the song or hate it, it’s a Christmas classic. (I loved the repetition as a kid and trying to remember all the previous days when you finally get to the twelfth day of Christmas, but my dad definitely was on the I Can’t Stand This Song Turn It Off Right Now side…so we usually skipped that song on the CD. 😂)
The 12 Days of Christmas make for a fun gift-giving tradition, and there are lots of ways to make it your own. Most often, you gift one gift a day for 12 days during the 12 Days of Christmas period (more info on when that is below). This is such a fun way to invite Christmas cheer during the holiday season!
To help you in your gift-giving, I’ve created two different versions of FREE printable gift tags for the 12 Days of Christmas: a traditional version that goes along with the original Christmas carol lyrics, and a more modern/generic set of tags if you prefer that. Get the digital files below!
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See all my FREE printables HERE
What are the gifts of the 12 Days of Christmas?
According to the traditional song lyrics, the 12 gifts given during the 12 Days of Christmas are as follows:
- 1st day of Christmas: a partridge in a pear tree
- 2nd day of Christmas: two turtle doves
- 3rd day of Christmas: three French hens
- 4th day of Christmas: four calling birds
- 5th day of Christmas: five golden rings (or five gold rings depending on the song version)
- 6th day of Christmas: six geese a-laying
- 7th day of Christmas: seven swans a-swimming
- 8th day of Christmas: eight maids a-milking
- 9th day of Christmas: nine ladies dancing
- 10th day of Christmas: ten lords a-leaping
- 11th day of Christmas: eleven pipers piping
- 12th day of Christmas: twelve drummers drumming
What are the 12 Days of Christmas on the calendar?
Fun fact: the 12 Days of Christmas on the Christian calendar actually start on December 25th and end on January 5th. This is the time from Christ’s birth until the three wisemen arrived and is called Twelvetide or Christmastide. January 5th is known as Twelfth Night and the 6th is known as Three Kings’ Day or Epiphany. Cool, cool.
But, if you’re gifting 12 gifts for the 12 days of Christmas and want to end with your 12th gift on December 25th, you would start gifting on December 14th. This makes for a fun countdown until Christmas Day, so I think this is the most popular way to do it. If you want to end on a different day, just do the math backwards (to end on Christmas Eve, start on December 13th).
I’m not a stickler for the traditional calendar period, so however you want to participate in the 12 days of Christmas gifting is great–just have fun with it!
Free 12 Days of Christmas gift tag printables
I made several versions of these 12 Days of Christmas gift tags so you have options depending on the look you want, as well as how you want to print the tags. Hopefully you find that helpful!
The first version has watercolor images of the traditional 12 gifts of Christmas. The full file (a 2-page PDF) had room for four extra tags, so you get four bonus tags with birds and poinsettia images in a similar style (you’re welcome 😉). If your printer can handle borderless printing or printing right up to the edge, I squished all 12 tags on a single page if you prefer to save paper that way.
The second version of tags features large red numbers (1st, 2nd, etc.) and a red sweater border. The full file includes four blank tags with the sweater design, or, again, you can print the condensed single-page file.
Keep reading for gift ideas and grab the printables below!
Who can you give 12 days of Christmas gifts to?
12 days of Christmas gift-giving is a fun idea for pretty much anyone on your list, including:
- a family member
- a boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse
- your kids (they love to countdown before Christmas!)
- neighbors (you could make it a Secret Santa kind of thing and drop them off anonymously on their porch)
- or a favorite teacher (be sure to start early enough so they get all 12 gifts before Christmas break)
Ideas for 12 days of Christmas gifts
12 gifts can be a lot, so don’t feel like you have to go all out for each day. Small gifts are just as thoughtful and appreciated! Or, you can start on the first day of Christmas with a smaller gift and make the last gift something more special if you want.
Here are some 12 days of Christmas gift ideas (feel free to stick to one theme or give a variety based on the recipient):
- Treats and snacks: Homemade Christmas treats are always welcome (well, not for me because I have celiac so I usually can’t enjoy these…but most people aren’t me 😆). You could gift 12 Days of Christmas cookies, or maybe a “12 Days of Christmas snacks” care package for a college student.
- Small clothing items or accessories
- Themed gifts based on a single interest: 12 small Lego gifts (could get pricy, so you could separate in sections so they can build one part each day versus 12 complete sets), 12 collectibles (like mini Squishmallows etc.), 12 kitchen gadgets for the cook, 12 sewing gifts for the quilter (yes please–use my referral for $10 off your order!), or 12 books for a reader
- Christmas ornaments: add one to the tree each day leading up to Christmas
- Christmas books or movies: read or watch one each day leading up to Christmas
- Makeup or beauty products: A daily nail polish, lip gloss, face mask, or even fuzzy socks would be fun.
- Fun items from dollar stores: could be small toys for kids or just totally random things for an adult
- A gift card a day (I’ll take 12 gift cards to grocery stores, please 😆)
These ideas would also work great for homemade advent calendars or Secret Santa gifts, too!
How to use these free 12 Days of Christmas tags
Note: These gift tags are for personal use only and may not be shared, sold, or distributed, in whole or in part. Please do not share this PDF file or the download link–they are for personal use only. Please share a link to this blog post instead!
Click the image or button below to download the tags you want:
Tips for printing: Make sure your printer settings are set to scale 100% and print at a high quality. For best results, print on white cardstock. Photo paper would work too if you prefer a glossy finish and maybe even sticker paper, though I haven’t tried it.
If you are printing the single page options, be sure your color printer can handle printing to the edge (since there wasn’t space for full margins) or set your printing settings to borderless printing.
Once printed, you can use a paper cutter or scissors to cut the tags out. Punch a hole at the top of the tag with a hole punch and tie to your gift with ribbon, baker’s twine, or yarn. Check out my 12 easy ribbon bows HERE for gorgeous gift wrapping!
Printable 12 Days of Christmas gift tags
I hope you have so much fun with the 12 days of Christmas gift-giving, and hopefully these printable tags make the process even easier for you!
Have a very merry Christmas!
