By TR Robertson
For the 41st year, with one year off due to COVID, PNC Financial Services Group once again published the Christmas Price Index of what the items listed in the Christmas carol, “Twelve Days of Christmas”, would cost you if you wanted to purchase your True Love the gifts in the carol. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index the gifts are up 5.4% in cost this year, the third highest in the 41 years the accounting has been done. You can expect to pay $49,263.47 this year. Since the verses are repeated, we assume the items are bought each time they are sung, making the 364 gifts total cost $209,272 as compared to $197,071.09 last year.
The “Twelve Days of Christmas” is an English carol that was published in 1780 but thought to be French in origin. It is an example of a cumulative song, a song where each verse is built on top of the previous verse. In reality, the “Twelve Days of Christmas” starts on Christmas Day and runs to January 5th. The 5th is known as Epiphany Eve.
Many traditions surround the 12 days of Christmas. On the 12th day, the Twelfth Night Cake was eaten at a Christmas feast. This cake is very rich and contains lots of nuts, spices, and fruit. Today, the modern Italian Panettone cake is the closest cake to the traditional Twelfth Night Cake. In the past, a pea or bean was baked inside the cake. Whomever got the pea or bean in their slice was chosen as the Lord or Lady of Misrule to lead the celebrations of the Twelfth Night Party. The first Monday after the Christmas feast is known as Plough Monday. This is the day farmers would start working the fields again for the new planting season. It is also a tradition to take down your Christmas decorations following the Twelfth Night, January 5th.
There are some fun facts as to why the prices are up for this year’s gifts. The cost of fertilizer is up 28.4%, needed to make sure the pear tree is in good shape. Soaring service costs are driving up many of the prices, driven by wages and labor increases and increased transportation costs. There is an increase in price for performers, up 14.6%. One savings is there is no federal wage increase, since 2009, so the cost for the Eight Maids-a-Milking remains the same, but there is significant increase in the musical performing groups cost. Remember the total cost is based on the True Love purchasing the items as he/she repeats all the songs’ verses, making a purchase of 364 gifts, what a lucky recipient this person is.
The 2024 breakdown of the cost for the Twelve gifts and the percentage increase, if any, is the following:
One Partridge in a Pear Tree – $370.18 – 16.6% increase, most of which is the cost of the pear tree
Two Turtle Doves – $750 – no increase
Three French Hens – $346.50 – 5% increase
Four Calling Birds – $599.96 – no increase
Five Gold Rings – $1,245 – no increase
Six Geese-a-Laying – $900 – 15.5% increase
Seven Swans-a-Swimming – $13,124.93 – no increase
Eight Maids-a-Milking – $58 – no increase
Nine Ladies Dancing – $8,557.37 – 3% increase
Ten Lords-a-Leaping – $15,579.65 – 7.2% increase
Eleven Pipers Piping – $3,714.96 – 15.8% increase
Twelve Drummers Drumming – $4,016.85 – 15.8% increase
Total Christmas Price Index – $49,263.47
True cost of Christmas in the song – $209,272 – a 3% increase over the previous year
Started in 1984 by a PNC predecessor bank in Philadelphia, the PNC CPI was initially developed to include in holiday messages to clients. Today, thousands and thousands of people look forward to reading about this unique Christmas carol and the financial changes that have taken place over the years.
