The Gist: PNC released its annual report on the true cost of the 12 days of Christmas. The Christmas Price Index tells how much the True Love in the song 12 Days of Christmas could expect to pay in today’s dollars. The price tag this year is $38,993.59.
Is this important?: Believe it or not, the Christmas Price Index does have an important economic purpose. It is a tongue-in-cheek way of determining how much the economy has changed in a year across several sectors.
This year vs. last year: There is practically no difference in the price of these items for 2019 when compared to 2018. The price has gone up just $67.56
Changes: Here are some of the items that changed significantly in price in 2019.
- Doves Dive: The price for Turtle Doves was down a dramatic 20%, the first drop in price since 2004.
- Rings Are Golden: After falling in 2018 due to less demand and fluctuations in gold prices, Gold Rings rebounded with a 10% increase in 2019.
- Geese Gain Again: For the second year in a row, geese saw a substantial rise in price, gaining 7.7% in 2019 largely due to an increase of interest in backyard farming.
More information: For tech-savvy True Loves, the PNC Christmas Price Index also calculates the cost of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” gifts purchased on the internet. As Internet prices tend to be higher due to travel and shipping costs, True Loves will have to splurge $42,258.91 ($3,265.32 more than in-store purchases) for the convenience of online shopping this year.
As part of its annual tradition, PNC also tabulates the “True Cost of Christmas,” which is the total cost of items bestowed by a True Love who repeats all the song’s verses. Purchasing all 364 gifts will require $170,298.03, down $64.23 from last year.
You can read the full report here.
