Let's take a look at the symbols.  'True love' does not represent a suitor in fact it represented 'God', the "me" who receives the gifts is suggested to be every baptized person.  The gifts themselves represented different ideas as follows:

The "Partridge in a pear tree" was Jesus.

2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments of The Bible

3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity - the Theological Virtues.

4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which relays the history of man's fall from grace.

6 Geese A-laying = the six days of Creation.

7 Swans A-swimming = the seven sacraments - gifts of the Holy Spirit.

8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes (solemn blessings)

9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit.

10 Lords A-leaping = the Ten Commandments.

11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles.

12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed.

However not all believe this version of the history of the song to be true.  In the book "A Celebration of History" by Leigh Grand, the words to the song were written around the late 1700's and the music came some time earlier from France.  He suggests that the song is nothing more than a child's memory game.  According to Grand the song has no religious significance whatsoever!  He says that the object of the song was to facilitate a game where the child had to remember which gift came next and loose a turn if forgotten.

No matter what version you believe this song reinforces the idea of gift giving associated with the history of festivities. If one gift is given each day in this song then we can recount a total of 364 gifts given with 184 of them being birds. Birds must have been a prized gift back in the old days!

In recent times an economist computes each year the cost for all the gifts in this song adjusted to inflation. In 2005 the computed Christmas Price Index cost for all the gifts in the song was $72,608. This is done purely for fun from an economist's point of view!