Apple not offering '12 Days of Gifts' promotion for first time in six years

Since 2008, Apple has given away songs, apps, movies and other digital goodies as part of a holiday tradition dubbed the "12 Days of Christmas," or "12 Days of Gifts" for U.S. users, but this year the company has apparently opted to call off the promotion.

A report from Macworld earlier this week cited sources as saying Apple had no plans to participate in its yearly promo, and with no app or mention of the program in sight as of Dec. 27, the rumor is all but confirmed.

In previous years, Apple released its 12 Days of Gifts app on the iOS App Store in the weeks leading up to Christmas, usually making the first freebie available to users on Dec. 26, or Boxing Day. New gifts were unveiled every day and available for 24 hours before being replaced by the next.

Following a series of smaller items, like music singles and e-books, "12 Days" would culminate in a larger gift on Jan. 6, the most recent being the mini album "Sweet Summer Sun — Hyde Park Live" by the Rolling Stones.

For 2013, "12 Days" brought users in the U.S., Europe and Canada select tracks from Justin Timberlake and Lorde, a copy of Oscar-winning film "Hugo" with iTunes extras, Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2014 e-book and various iOS apps, among other goodies.

Apple's decision to break from tradition comes just one year after "12 Days" was first introduced to U.S. customers under slightly less denominational "12 Days of Gifts" branding. It is unclear if the company plans to reinstate the program in 2015.

125 Comments

daveinpublic 633 comments · 12 Years

About 9 years ago

How can it be cancelled if they never announced they'd be doing it?

mpantone 2245 comments · 18 Years

The cancellation was an internal decision, not public.

At some point, someone within Apple said, "No, we will not do this." In this case, the ears that this message reached were other Apple employees.

One doesn't need to publicize everything to make it true. Life is not solely defined by press releases or Facebook posts.

You can actually do stuff without announcing it to the entire goddamned universe. Apparently a lot of people these days have forgotten that basic concept.