While I was on vacation, we spent a day in Queens, NY, with family and friends. Mostly Jewish family and friends, in fact.

One of the folks in attendance mentioned how much fun she had had at a Christmas party earlier that week, when those in attendance had sung "The 12 Days of Christmas" together. Each person had been assigned a day (e.g., one person sang "and a partridge in a pear tree" each time around).

We decided to emulate that singalong -- with a twist: Each person would make up the items for that day.

My father-in-law started:

"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
A thooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong."

That's "thong," stretched out by many syllables.

Others would enter the rooms to see what was going on, and would be put on the spot to participate, often against their will. Whatever they said would be worked into the song.

The finished ditty went a bit like this:

On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
Twelve "I want cake"s
Eleven cans of something
Ten bags of ice cream
Nine babies screaming
Eight shots of tequila
Seven weird people
Six random singalongs
Five bellybutton rings
Four sets of twins
Three candy stripers
Two Jewish chicks
And a thooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong.