The Cost of 12 Days of Christmas Goes Up, But Only Slightly

After a huge 'leap' of more than nine percent in 2010, the cost for a set of the gifts in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” bumped up a mere 3.5% to $24,263.18 for 2011.

That's just the set for the twelfth day.

According to an article on Forbes.com, the numbers were published as part of the PNC Wealth Management 2011 Christmas Price index. The CPI began 28 years ago, in 1984, when the chief economist at PNC Bank decided to figure out how much it would cost to buy each of the gifts. 

PNC relied on dance companies to price out the services of the ten lords-a-leaping and the nine ladies dancing. The prices for most of the birds – including the partridge and the turtledoves – were provided by the National Aviary in Pittsburgh.

If you want to go the whole nine yards and get every item for every day (that’s 364 separate pieces of birds, milkers and dancers), it will cost you $101,119.84.

The priciest items on the list were the seven swans a-swimming, which commanded $6,300.

The cost of the pear tree increased by a whopping 13.3% which was consistent with a rise in prices for many agricultural products, according to the article. 

While the cost of goods seemed to rise, labor stayed  fairly constant. Of the four gifts that didn’t increase in price, three of them – eight maids-a-milking, nine ladies dancing and ten lords-a-leaping – were related to employment. Musicians, pulled in a slightly higher price with boosts for both the eleven pipers piping and twelve drummers drumming.