My Christmas Caching Series

It started when I was at work one day. I always think there are lots of geocache possibilities at my job, little containers here and there that are waterproof enough to survive this semi-tropical climate. I very rarely come upon them, though. One day, I was looking for something else when I stumbled on a stash of old Falcon 50 ml conical tubes and had an idea....

It took me a while to find the best places to hide them at, ones that suited their names and yet were discrete. I needed twelve locations.

I painted seven of those tubes hunter green and then placed a Santa sticker on them. I also had three different kind of microcaches - the prescription bottle in camo tape, the black plastic hide-a-key, and one of these babies on the right.

I found out some interesting information about the Twelve Days of Christmas along the way, and made it the story on the cache pages. Here is the excerpts.....

You’ve all probably heard the popular holiday song “Twelve Days of Christmas”. A historical belief on the origin of the song is that it was written during the persecution of Catholics by the Protestants in England during the sixteenth century. Inside the song itself laid clues about the core beliefs of the Catholic Faith. The hidden meaning of the song could be encrypted by those familiar with the faith.
The Twelve Days of Christmas technically begin on Christmas Day. They mark the twelve days between the birth of Christ and the arrival of the Magi, or the Wise Men, with their gifts for the infant on January 6, also known as “Epiphany”. We are hoping this series brings you a little epiphany of your own, and provides you some enjoyment during this magical season.

On each page, I explain the historical meaning for each named item.

Twelve Drummers Drumming” is supposed to be a reference to the Twelve Points of Doctrine in the Apostles Creed.

Eleven Pipers Piping The “pipers piping” is supposed to be a reference to the Eleven Faithful Disciples (this is excluding Judas, who is considered not to be “faithful”).

Ten Lords A’Leaping The Ten Commandments.

Nine Ladies Dancing Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Eight Maids A-Milking the Eight Beatitudes.

Seven Swans a-Swimming the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: 1) prophecy, 2) ministry, 3) teaching, 4) exhortation, 5) giving, 6) leading, and 7) compassion

Six Geese A-Laying” is believed to refer to the six days of creation (plus one day of rest!).

Five Golden Rings is believed to refer to the Five Books of the Old Testament.

Four Calling Birds believed to refer to The Four Gospels.

Three French Hens refers to the Three Theological Virtues: 1) Faith, 2) Hope, and 3) Love

Two Turtle Doves refers to Old and the New Testament.

and in each of the microcaches for this series,which are hidden at places you might see these things, have laminated cards with parts of the coordinates for the final, a bonus cache called, you guessed it, A Partridge in a Pear Tree. Here is the full write up for that one (very smiliar to the other cache pages):

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me….

A Partridge in a Pear Tree
This is the bonus cache in the Twelve Days of Christmas series. You’ll have to find at least most of the others in the series to obtain the cords for this find.
Now, the moment you’ve been driving all around town for has arrived. I’ve given you what I like best about geocaching – a nice hike in a beautiful location, culminating in an ammo can in the woods filled with trade items! Enjoy! You might want to stay a while!
You’ve all probably heard the popular holiday song “Twelve Days of Christmas”. A historical belief on the origin of the song is that it was written during the persecution of Catholics by the Protestants in England during the sixteenth century. Inside the song itself laid clues about the core beliefs of the Catholic Faith. The hidden meaning of the song could be encrypted by those familiar with the faith. The term “partridge in a pear tree” is believed to refer to Jesus.
The Twelve Days of Christmas technically begin on Christmas Day. They mark the twelve days between the birth of Christ and the arrival of the Magi, or the Wise Men, with their gifts for the infant on January 6, also known as “Epiphany”. We are hoping this series brings you a little epiphany of your own, and provides you some enjoyment during this magical season.
This cache is hidden near a place where you might a partridge in a “pair tree”.
It may be beneficial to approach the series in a geographical sequence and not necessarily in chronological order.
You might want to come prepared for this one. Bring the kids, bring the dogs, bring a picnic, and the fishing rods. Be prepared to stay a little while – this is part of the present I have for you! Be very aware of surrounding muggles on this cache.It is across the service road, please conceal well when putting it back, and be very discreet. We don’t want to reveal its hiding place to the doggy walking muggles! Also, keep the service road clear. The young men who built all this here use it to get in and out, and the police use it to patrol the park. Oh, and if you see the policeman on the way in, he does turn around when he gets to the back, so be aware and don’t appear overly suspicious! You can bring the cache with you to the nearby gazebo to go through the contents at your leisure. Make sure you make the grab and replace without attracting too much attention. We wouldn't want this one to disappear, it's much too nice of a spot! Enjoy! Room for trade items!

This ammo can final is in a really beautiful park I found. It has a hiking trail going around man-made ponds with waterfalls and bridges. It is just gorgeous. I found it while tooling around Google Earth looking for businesses to fit my caches (play on the names - for instance, "maids-a-milking" is at the Dairy Queen), and had extra time to check it out over the course of a week. To complete the entire path took me about forty five minutes.

It was difficult to find places in the park to hide two full size caches. The trees are small and there is really no way to take it "off trail" without attracting undue attention.

The ammo can, with a little decorative bird on it, is in a "pair tree". "Two Turtle Doves" is the size of a medium tub wrapped in camo tape with a pair of decorative doves attached to it. I wish I had taken pictures of the caches...but I forgot.

I worked really hard on making cute caches and clever locations, and hope the other local geocachers enjoy the park as much as I did. I would especially be excited if it got a nomination for the next Annual Geocaching Awards for "Best Themed Series".

I got a new travel bug tag and several new geocoins for Christmas, and have a couple more hides up my sleeve this new year. My geocaching goals for 2009 are to reach 1500 finds by March and 2000 by the end of the year, to hide more quality caches, to run a travel bug race with geocoin prizes (for returning my travelers to me), and to get nominated for this next year awards.