someone who actually gave his true love the gifts as "recommended"

I know the humorous story of which you speak. However, I heard an interview on CBC Radio a couple of years ago with a couple who had actually been "victims" of the gifts of the Twelve Days of Christmas for a number of years, one gift each year. The worst of it was that they didn't know who was giving them the gifts. All their family was mystified each year as these elaborate gifts kept arriving. In the last year, it was revealed that it was their brother and sister-in-law.

Here, I found a link to the radio interview, you'll find it on this page: http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/basic_black/past_shows/dec_23.html