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True Love Costs More In '12 Days'

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By DAN NEPHIN, The Associated Press

Published: November 26, 2007

PITTSBURGH - While the origins of the Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" may be a mystery, one thing is certain: It's getting more costly to buy your true love all the items mentioned.

It would cost $78,100 to buy the 364 items, from a single partridge in a pear tree to the 12 drummers drumming, repeatedly on each day as the song suggests, according to the annual PNC Christmas Price Index compiled by PNC Wealth Management. The cost is up 4 percent from $75,122 last year.

Buying each item in the song just once would cost $19,507, up 3.1 percent from last year's $18,921. And shopping online would be costlier, with the total for the 364 items costing $128,886, up 2.5 percent from last year's $125,767. You would spend $31,249 online for each item just once this year.

Helping push the cost up this year is the minimum wage increase, which bumped the cost of eight maids a-milking from about $41 to nearly $47.

Higher food costs pushed the six geese a-laying from $300 to $360. And reflecting higher gold prices, those five gold rings will cost $395, up 21.5 percent from last year's $325.

"The cost of the gold rings in this year's Christmas Price Index reflects the general trend of increasing commodity prices in the Consumer Price Index, including gold," Jim Dunigan, managing executive of investment for PNC Wealth Management. "In addition, increased fears about inflation and the value of the dollar may have led investors to turn to gold as a safer place to invest their money."
PNC checks jewelry stores, dance companies, pet stores and other sources to compile the list, Dunigan said.

'TWELVE DAYS' COST

•Partridge, $15 (last year: same)

•Pear tree, $150 (last year: $130)

•Two turtle doves, $40 (last year: same)

•Three French hens, $45 (last year: same)

•Four calling birds (canaries), $600 (last year: $480)

•Five gold rings, $395 (last year: $325)

•Six geese a-laying, $360 (last year: $300)

•Seven swans a-swimming, $4,200 (last year: same)

•Eight maids a-milking, $47 (last year: $41)

•Nine ladies dancing (per performance), $4,759 (last year: same)

•10 lords a-leaping (per performance), $4,285 (last year: $4,160)

•11 pipers piping (per performance), $2,213 (last year: $2,124)

•12 drummers drumming (per performance), $2,398 (last year: $2,301)

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