Visit the 12 Days of Christmas: Day 1, A Partridge in a Pear Tree

by Tom Bastek
Last updated: 3:00 PM ET, Sat November 15, 2014

The beloved Christmas Carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," was first published in England in 1780 but it's thought to have come from the French. Over the next couple of weeks we are going to explore exactly where you need to go to obtain or achieve everything from the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Partridges are ground-nesting seed-eaters and are typically found in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Middle East. They also happen to be one of the tastiest birds to cook up for your holiday feast. For our journey, we will skip on the roast beast and head to Tasmania.

Yes, that Tasmania. To none other than Partridge Farm, a lovely Bed and Breakfast on Flinders Island. Rob & Lorraine Holloway have owned the property for over 30 years and started taking tenants on holiday in 1996. They prepare food sourced mostly right there on the farm and even have free range partridges.

They even have an extensive beer and wine selection and have it stocked in each of the four houses on the property. And right now in our winter is their summer, so going is a true no brainer.

Fruit Tree Farm

So if we are going for a pear tree, we better go to the best. Fruit Tree Farm in McMinnville, Tenn., deals with nothing but fruit trees and have been doing it for over 25 years. They grow all of their trees on site and they sell to everyone from the individual to large commercial operations.

There are a few chain hotels to stay at in McMinnville and you are halfway between Chattanooga and Nashville but my recommendation is rent a cabin and enjoy the winter holidays. Cozy Cabins and Cottages and Piney Creek Cabins are two of the closest.

Maybe when we are all done traveling for this song, we can calculate how much we would have spent to do the gathering. So far, we are off to Tasmania and back to the Tennessee Mountains. Sounds like good holiday travel to me!

Every day I will include one of my favorite renditions of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Here is probably one of my all time favorites: