Its one of the most popular Christmas carols of all time but computer giant HP has put its own mark on it – it is somewhat less catchy though.

The 12 days of Christmas is an old English carol believed to have been published in 1780. HP has changed the lyrics “on the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree” to “on the first day of convergence, HP gave to thee; the converged infrastructure architecture”. Doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

The new lyrics probably won’t make you think of snow covered fields or warmly lit Christmas trees and frosted windows. It’s also not a ballad you would sing loudly over the piano after a few glasses of champagne or a cup too many eggnog. It doesn’t inspire the same fuzziness as “three French hens, two turtle doves” or 11 pipers piping, 10 lords a leaping, nine ladies dancing and eight maids a milking.

But nonetheless, this is what HP has given the world this Christmas;

The HP version includes the following verses;
On the second day of convergence, HP gave to thee:
End-to-end virtualisation of all resources

On the third day of convergence, HP gave to thee:
Tight orchestration and automation

On the fourth day of convergence, HP gave to thee:
High optimisation

On the eight day of convergence, HP gave to thee:
Virtualised collections of shared server, storage and networking capacity

On the 10th day of convergence, HP gave to thee:
Fully virtualised network connections

And the original and well, better version;
On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree

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

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me 12 drummers drumming, 11 pipers piping, 10 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.