With Christmas just a few days off, the endless replays of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" are no doubt a-ringing in your ears. You're a-tiring of the numerous parodies and, along with some economists, may even have been a-tallying up the costs of all those gifts.

But have you stopped to think about the carol's mathematical aspects?

		HAVE SOME FUN Start having some fun by clicking here to access the full story, which is presented in .pdf-format. To view this graphic you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, available as a free download from Adobe

Let's face it, a lot of numbers are involved in this song. All of those swans a-swimming, pipers piping and lords a-leaping add up. The numbers and the way they add up make for some interesting patterns that, coincidentally or not, resemble such seasonal icons as Christmas trees, stockings and stars.

Analyzing "Twelve Days" is something of an old chestnut among some math educators, who use the song to discuss mathematical principles and history, said Mike Breen, a spokesman for the American Mathematical Society.

But don't look for hidden meaning in the song's numerology.

"We're not cracking the DaVinci Code," said Bill Butterworth, director of the mathematics program at tCollege of DePaul he Barat University in Lake Forest, Ill.