Locally sourcing 12 gifts for your true love

The song “12 days of Christmas” sets the bar high when it comes to gift giving for your true love. Fortunately, most of the gifts given in the song are available right here in Canada, for those looking to buy local this holiday season.

A partridge in a pear tree

The partridge is a game bird that was introduced into Canada from Europe over a century ago and is most common on the Prairies. While Statistics Canada does ask farmers if they raise partridges, we cannot say exactly how many, since they fall under the “other poultry” category, which includes pigeons, emus and pheasants, among others.

We do, however, track fruit production, and pears were Canada’s ninth most important fruit crop in 2023 in terms of sales, at $15.6 million. That amount was up from $14.3 million in 2022 and $10.1 million in 2020.

British Columbia (4 900 tonnes) and Ontario (3 617 tonnes) were Canada’s leading pear-producing provinces in 2023. Overall, Canadian growers grew about 61 million pears, enough for one and a half pears per Canadian.

Two turtle doves

There are no turtle doves in Canada, but nine baby girls were named “Dove” in 2023, making it the 2,160^th most popular girl name that year.

Three French hens

We don’t ask questions about specific breeds of chickens, but we can tell you that 18,536 farms were raising hens aged 19 weeks and older for laying table eggs in 2021. These farms reported 24.8 million hens a-laying in total.

Four calling birds

Similar to Canadian “snowbirds,” most calling birds head south for the winter. Still, 10 calling birds do stick around, the most famous of which are chickadees, blue jays and cardinals.

Over one in four Canadian households (26%) bought food for birds or provided birdhouses on their property in the previous 12 months in 2021.

Five golden rings

Canada is the fourth-largest gold producing country in the world, so we have plenty of gold for golden rings.

In 2023, Canadian gold production is estimated to have risen 1.6% from a year earlier to a record high 198 335 kilograms, equivalent to over 19.8 million large golden rings.

Gold was mined in eight provinces and two territories in 2023, with Ontario (88 904 kilograms), Quebec (50 830 kilograms) and Nunavut (25 506 kilograms) producing the most gold.

Canadian producers received $15.1 billion for their gold in 2023.

Six geese a-laying

We counted 70,060 geese in the spring of 2021 on 1,320 farms. We do not know how many geese are a-laying at any given period, however.

Farmers reported raising geese in every province and Yukon in 2021. Alberta was home to the most geese (15,392) and goose farms (293).

Seven swans a-swimming

We don’t have data on swans per se, but we do know a lot about Swan River (population of 4,049) in Manitoba and Swan Hills (population of 1,201) in Alberta.

Eight maids a-milking

In 2021, 30.4% of Canada’s farm operators were women, up from 28.7% in 2016.

The largest share of female farm operators by farm type in 2021 was on sheep and goat farms (41.1%). Over one in four (27.4%) dairy and milk farms were operated by women.

Nowadays, however, you are probably more likely to find a machine a-milking than a maid—in 2020, 2,197 farms reported using fully robotic milkers.

Nine ladies dancing

Your best bet to find ladies dancing is undoubtedly in Quebec, which was home to 43 of the 105 dance companies with employees we counted in the first half of 2024. Ontario ranked second, with 28 dance companies, and British Columbia third, with 18.

Ten lords a leaping

The title of Lord was abolished in Canada last century, but there is a small town in Newfoundland and Labrador called Lord’s Cove with a population of 155 in 2021.

Eleven pipers piping

We don’t track pipers piping but we do count pipefitters fitting pipes. In 2021, there were 5,315 steamfitters, pipefitters and sprinkler system installers with a trade certificate or diploma.

Canada needs more pipers. In the second quarter of 2024, employers were looking for 610 steamfitters, pipefitters and sprinkler system installers, offering an hourly wage of $42.80.

Twelve drummers drumming

If you are looking for drums or drummers for your loved one this holiday season, why not check out one of the 440 musical instrument and supply retailers with employees across Canada? There was a musical instrument and supply retailer with employees in every province and territory except Nunavut in the first half of 2024, with Ontario reporting the most stores (162 stores).