While buying your true love all the gifts from the "12 Days of Christmas" carol certainly isn't practical — they would end up with A LOT of birds — it would also cost you thousands of dollars.
According to PNC Bank's 41st annual Christmas Price Index, which calculates the price of items featured in the classic carol, buying all 12 gifts this year would cost $49,263.47. That's up about 5.4% from last year and more than double what it would have cost to buy everything when the index launched in 1984 — $20,023.57.
Purchasing all 364 gifts — that is, buying the gifts with verses repeated — would set you back $209,272, about 3.6% higher than last year.
"Believe it or not, we're still seeing the cause and effect of the pandemic-inflation hangover, even nearly five years later," Amanda Agati, chief investment officer of PNC's Asset Management Group, said in a statement. "With years of steep price increases, we'd think inflation has nowhere to go, but we'd be wrong."
To determine the true cost of Christmas, PNC's Investment Office analyzed sources from across the country, including dance and theatre companies, hatcheries, pet stores and others.
Among this year's trends:
• Although the Partridge was unchanged, there was a 17.1% jump in price for the Pear Tree — a proxy for housing costs, which likewise continue to move higher despite average mortgage rates edging lower.
• Rising wages for skilled labor were a huge driver. The prices for performers — represented by the Ladies Dancing, Lords-a-Leaping, Pipers Piping and Drummers Drumming — increased 7.9% this year, substantially higher than last year's 3.3%.
• There were no price increases this year for five gifts, including the Turtle Doves, Calling Birds, Gold Rings, Swans-a-Swimming and Maids-a-Milking.
Breaking down the cost:
• One Partridge in a Pear Tree -- $370.18
• Two Turtle Doves -- $750
• Three French Hens -- $346.50
• Four Calling Birds -- $599.96
• Five Gold Rings -- $1,245
• Six Geese-a-Laying -- $900
• Seven Swans-a-Swimming -- $13,125
• Eight Maids-a-Milking -- $58
• Nine Ladies Dancing -- $8,557.37
• 10 Lords-a-Leaping -- $15,579.65
• 11 Pipers Piping -- $3,714.96
• 12 Drummers Drumming -- $4,016.85