This is always fun. According to PNC Wealth Management, the 364 items mentioned in the song “12 Days of Christmas” would cost nearly $100,000 this year. That’s quite a Christmas present. And it’s not the only gift going up in price this year.
Trying to buy the 364 items repeated in all the song’s verses — from 12 drummers drumming to a partridge in a pear tree — would cost $96,824, an increase of 10.8 percent over last year, according to the annual Christmas Price Index compiled by PNC Wealth Management.
So you might want to try for one of everything. That would cost only $23,439, or 9.2 percent more than last year.
The 27th annual holiday index has historically mirrored the national Consumer Price Index, but not this year. The PNC Christmas Price Index grew 9.2 percent from last year, compared with just a 1.1 percent increase in the much broader Consumer Price Index.
The biggest increases for the “12 Days” items were due to rising prices of gold and birds. Just four items — the pear tree, four calling birds, six geese, and eight maids-a-milking — didn’t go up in price this year.
The most expensive item? The nine ladies dancing. Their employment is estimated at $6,294.03. The least expensive item? The partridge, which apparently costs just $12.


by Stephan Tawney on November 29, 2010