For the first time ever, the cost of the gifts featured in the Christmas carol, “Twelve Days of Christmas,” totals more than $100,000. Financial services company, PNC Wealth Management, just released its 28th annual estimate of the “Christmas price index”, a whimsical economic indicator that tallies the prices of the following basket of Christmas gifts from the well known carol.
Here is a summary of their calculation:
Gift | One Set of Each Gift | Total Cost of Repeated Gift Sets |
A partridge in a pear tree | $184.99 | $2,219.88 |
Two turtledoves | 125.00 | 1,375.00 |
Three French hens | 150.00 | 1,500.00 |
Four calling birds | 519.96 | 4,679.64 |
Five golden rings | 645.00 | 5,160.00 |
Six geese-a-laying | 162.00 | 1,134.00 |
Seven swans-a-swimming | 6,300.00 | 37,800.00 |
Eight maids-a-milking | 58.00 | 290.00 |
Nine ladies dancing | 6,294.03 | 25,176.12 |
Ten lords-a-leaping | 4,766.70 | 14,300.10 |
Eleven pipers piping | 2,427.60 | 4,855.20 |
Twelve drummers drumming | 2,629.90 | 2,629.90 |
Total | $24,263.18 | $101,119.84 |
In this article, we highlight a number of key factors (some might say errors) made in the calculation. While the Christmas price index is clearly not intended as a serious economic indicator, the article illustrates some of the most common problems with valuations generally.