All the Gifts From the 12 Days of Christmas

Idea:

You've probably heard that famous holiday song where some lucky lover is given a gift every day for twelve (12) days of Christmas. First of all, what does this person DO for a living to afford all these gifts?! (Asking for a friend.)

The idea for this project was to make some sort of data visualization showing all of the gifts given to the "true love" over the entire 12 Days of Christmas.  It starts out with a partridge in a pear tree...but every day they get that SAME gift with a new one added for the new day!  Ever wonder how many gifts they get in total?  This data visualization is going to answer that question.  You can not only learn the total number of gifts received but how many on each day and how many of each gift. (Sorry, it does NOT explain what career field you need to pursue similar gift-giving legend status.)

Data Viz:

Here is the link to the Tableau Public portfolio page

Insight:

The goal of this project was to take some (very) OLD information find something new and interesting about the data.  The most captivating thing (for my nerd-enhanced brain, at least) is how the numbers created unique patterns throughout the data visualization, creating a pretty cool visual effect.

The total amount of each gift creates pairs based upon the opposite day.  For example, Day 1 and Day 12 have a total of 12 gifts each.  By comparison, Day 6 and Day 7 have a total of 42 gifts each.  This pattern continues with all the days, creating a histogram style display.  After looking at the chart, the gifts have a unique mathematical pattern explaining the total sums.  Each day's gift total increases (or decreases) in even numbers only.

The second thing that caught my eye does not really register in a person's mind when listening to the song, but REALLY stands out in a visual context.  The star chart on the left side displays the sequential order of new gifts each day.  Depending on how you interpret the song, it sounds like our billionaire gift-giver adds new presents every day IN ADDITION to what was already given. For example on Day #2, they gave two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree- giving a total gift count of three (3). This means that by Day #12, the "true love" gets to open 78 gifts.  78 GIFTS!   (Please, for the love of humanity, don't let anyone show this chart to my wife.)

The last piece of insight shown on the chart is the grand total of gifts.  After the twelve (12) days, the "true love" has a total of 364 gifts in all.  More than 50% of the gifts are given on the last three (3) days of Christmas.  What does someone do with so many gifts?  (Can they maybe trade some of those Geese-A-Laying or Swans-A-Swimming for some Horse-Power-Under-The-Hood?)

Project:

This project was inspired from the Christmas Season, with Christmas cheer! (Special thanks goes to my wife's endless rotation of Christmas music 28 hours a day starting in November.)  Seriously though, what better way to end the last day of Christmas than with a Data Viz.  Something that says "Merry Christmas!"

Tools:

• Tableau Public
• Google Sheets

Data:

Surprisingly, there was no data set regarding this song... UNTIL NOW!  A new data set was created in Google Sheets and shared with the world.

(Google Sheet) (Microsoft Excel) (CSV) (Kaggle) (Data.world)

The data set has three columns; Day number, Gift, and Quantity.

Data Cleaning:

Since the data set was freshly created, not much cleaning was needed.  When building the data set, everything was entered specifically for this data viz project.  Each gift has the day number next to it in a separate record.  For example, day three (3) has three (3) gifts given.  Each of these gifts gets a separate row, which gives a total of 3 rows just for that day.

Process:

The data visual was very simple in idea.  Four (4) things needed to be emphasized in this data viz.  The first was to explain what the twelve (12) days of Christmas exact dates.  This was completed by creating a simple graphic representation of a calendar highlighting the twelve (12) days of Christmas.  The reference used in this data viz was taken from the Catholic Liturgy Christmas Season.  Historically speaking, this specific religious season has twelve (12) days starting on Christmas Day (December 25th) and ending on January 5th.  To explain this in the data viz, an extra text area was created, providing more depth about the twelve (12) days of Christmas.

The second highlight of the data was the grand total of gifts.  Instead of making a chart, the best way to illustrate this data was simply to provide the grand total in numerical form.  This number was placed right under the calendar graphic to help balance the visual.

The third part of the project was to understand how many gifts of each item was given.  The chart started with a bar chart.  After noticing the unique pattern of pairs, it was necessary to include this characteristic in the data display.  The bar chart sorting was done by using the chronological order of the gifts from day #1.  The final image provides a bar chart that resembled a histogram style design.  To focus on the pairs, each matching quantity was displayed in the same color.  And lastly, the name of each gift and the quantity received was placed next to the bar to explain the chart.

The last piece of information added to the display was the total number of gifts given each day.  This was the final piece of information needed to really explain the data of the song in visual form.  Originally, a bar chart was going to be used but it did not balance with the other bar chart in an aesthetically pleasing way.  A line chart was tried next, but it did not separate the day intervals as desired.  The final idea was to use a scatter plot, which provided an overall pleasing look for the information needed.  Additionally, stars were used for the points of the scatter plot, to create that "Christmas" feeling.  This worked out perfectly because it highlights the curve of growth while also separating the days.