HIGHLIGHTS: An annual report estimates the cost of the stuff in the song “The 12 Days of Christmas”. And this year it would be $46,730. Or over $201,000, if you kept buying them over and over each day like the song suggests.
FULL STORY: It’s hard to believe that it’s almost December . . . and if you couldn’t find a Black Friday deal on a partridge in a pear tree, you better get on that, before every store sells out. (???)
PNC Bank does an annual study on how much it would cost to buy everything from the song, “The 12 Days of Christmas”.
The answer this year is $46,730, up 2.7%. Or if you bought the items over and over each day like the song suggests, that’s 364 total gifts, and over $201,000.
Here’s a breakdown of how much it would cost to buy or hire all 12 things . . .
Twelve drummers drumming . . . $3,468 to hire them.
Eleven pipers piping . . . $3,207.
Ten lords-a-leaping . . . $14,539. It’s the most expensive gift on the list. It’s based on how much it would cost to hire ten dancers from the Philadelphia ballet.
Nine ladies dancing . . . $8,308. Based on hiring nine women from a modern dance company in Philly. (Strippers are way cheaper.)
Eight maids-a-milking . . . $58. Weird gift, but the cheapest on the list. That’s eight women milking cows for an hour at the federal minimum wage of $7.25. (So you don’t get to keep the milk, you just watch? Seems a little pervy.)
Seven swans-a-swimming . . . $13,125. (Can you not RENT swans?)
Six geese-a-laying . . . $780.
Five gold rings . . . $1,245. That’s for five 14-carat gold rings according to a national jewelry chain.
Four calling birds . . . $600.
Three French hens . . . $330.
Two turtle doves . . . $750. That’s up a whopping 25% from last year.
And a partridge in a pear tree . . . $319. The price of the bird stayed flat, but the tree it lives in grew by 15%, “reflecting overall growth in housing costs.” (???)
(It seems like inflation would jolt the prices . . . but the 2.7% hike was actually the smallest year-over-year increase since 2019.)
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