Question

Print all 12 verses of the popular holiday song.

By 12 verses I mean the repetition of each line as is sung in the song, ie

Verse One: On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree.

Verse Two On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.

…

Verse N: On the nth day of Christmas my true love gave to me (Verse N-1 without the first line) (line added in verse N)

Answer 1

Common Lisp:

(mapc #'princ       (reverse (maplist #'(lambda(l)          (format nil              'On the ~:R day of Christmas my true love gave to me~%~{~a~%~}~%'                  (length l) l))      '('twelve drummers drumming,'       'eleven pipers piping,'       'ten lords a-leaping,'       'nine ladies dancing,'       'eight maids a-milking,'       'seven swans a-swimming,'       'six geese a-laying,'       'five gold rings,'       'four calling birds,'       'three french hens,'       'two turtle doves, and'       'a partridge in a pear tree.')))) 

Edit:

Above is 412 characters if you take out the whitespace.

This one:

(let ((g))   (dotimes (i 12)     (format t         'On the ~:R day of Christmas my true love gave to me~%~{~R ~:*~          ~[~;~;turtle doves and~;french hens,~;calling birds,~;gold rings,~          ~;geese a-laying,~;swans a-swimming,~;maids a-milking,~          ~;ladies dancing,~;lords a-leaping,~;pipers piping,~          ~;drummers drumming,~]~%~}a partridge in a pear tree~2%'         (1+ i) g)     (push (+ i 2) g))) 

is 344 characters if you take out whitespace and ~ quoted newlines in the format string:

(let((g))(dotimes(i 12)(format t'On the ~:R day of Christmas my true love gave to me~%~{~R ~:*~[~;~;turtle doves and~;french hens,~;calling birds,~;gold rings,~;geese a-laying,~;swans a-swimming,~;maids a-milking,~;ladies dancing,~;lords a-leaping,~;pipers piping,~;drummers drumming,~]~%~}a partridge in a pear tree~2%'(1+ i)g)(push(+ i 2)g))) 

Edit:

It looks like the question has run its course, and the site is nagging me to accept an answer. As far as I can see, this one is the shortest. I’m a little afraid of what the site will do if I accept my own answer – probably award me a Narcissist or Masturbator badge.

You can’t accept your own answers. Fair enough. I’ll leave it open. Thanks to everyone who responded.