If extravagant, dayslong displays involving more than a dozen birds are the ticket to your true love’s heart this holiday season, be prepared to pony up some cash.
The price of the gifts outlined in the holiday classic “The Twelve Days of Christmas” rose slightly this year to $46,729.86, according to PNC Bank. If you’re buying all 12 gifts online, the bank said you will pay more with a total of $52,024.03.
The bank has shared its annual Christmas Price Index, a play on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, which showed a 2.7% increase in prices for the 12 days of gifts.
Although prices are higher than last year, the change is significantly lower than the 10.5% price hike seen from 2021 to 2022. The prices of five items remained steady from 2022, while bank officials said labor costs accounted for most of the other increases.
“Certain industries are experiencing stickier inflation than others, some of which is well beyond the (Federal Reserve’s) control,” Amanda Agati, chief investment officer for PNC’s Asset Management Group, said in statement. “The good news is that wage growth is now higher than the PNC CPI, which should help True Loves deck the halls this year, considering we are still in a high-inflation environment.”
The highest increase came in the price of exotic turtle doves, which are 25% more expensive than last year with a price tag of $750. The most expensive of the gifts – 10 lords-a-leaping — went up by 4% to $14,539.20.
If you wanted to give your sweetie the true “Twelve Days of Christmas” — with gifts repeated several times, according to the song — it would cost $201,972.66. That would include 364 gifts.
Here’s a look at how much you’d pay for each of the items:
- Twelve drummers drumming: $3,468.02, up 6.2%
- Eleven piper piping: $3,207.38, up 6.2%
- Ten lords-a-leaping: $14,539.20, up 4%
- Nine ladies dancing: $8,308.12, no price change
- Eight maids-a-milking: $58, no price change
- Seven swans-a-swimming: $13,125, no price change
- Six geese-a-laying: $780, up 8.3%
- Five golden rings: $1,245, no price change
- Four calling birds, $599.96, no price change
- Three French hens: $330, up 3.5%
- Two turtle doves: $750, up 25%
- A partridge in a pear tree: $319.18, up 13.9%
