Seeing as there are 12 days left until Christmas (if you were to start giving gifts today, it would culminate with the 12th gift on Christmas Day…and we know you’re supposed to start on Christmas Day, but we want our presents now, damn it), we here at Untrue Fact of the Day have decided to look at the origins of each of the gifts of “The 12 Days of Christmas.”

Day 1: A partridge in a pear tree

Cost: $3.95 for the bird at any pet store, $15 for the pear tree at Lowe’s. (Or for $150, David Cassidy will come to your house and sit in a pear tree…he provides his own…it’s actually a really good value)

Origin of the Gift:  In December of 1864, Confederate generals, seeing the war slip away from them, decided, in a measure of desperation, to try a modern day version of the Trojan Horse.  They sent a pear tree to Washington as a Christmas gift, hiding a trained partridge inside.  Recognizing this ploy for what it was, Lincoln ordered the tree burned.  The partridge was never heard from again.