The annual cost of the gifts given by the “True Love” in the song “The 12 Days of Christmas” is out, and this year the cost has dropped drastically due to the coronavirus pandemic. The cost of the items is calculated and released each year by PNC and is known as the Christmas Price Index.
If you were wanting to dazzle your significant other by giving all the gifts given by the “True Love” in the song, this is the year to do it. The cost of the items has dropped to the lowest it has been since PNC started tracking the numbers in 1984.
How much would the items cost?
If you were to buy every item on the “True Love’s” list, it would cost about $16,168. That’s down significantly from $38,993 last year. If you were to over-achieve and buy all of the items multiple times for each repetition in the classic Christmas song, you would spend about $105,561.
Why did the price drop?
The primary reason the prices dropped this year, is due to COVID-19 and its impact on the entertainment industry. Due to COVID restrictions, you would not be able to acquire Nine Ladies Dancing, 10 Lords A-Leaping, 11 Pipers Piping or 12 Drummers Drumming. This reduction in the “True Love’s” labor force would significantly drop the price.
What about the other items?
The other items on the list didn’t suffer as much as the entertainers on the back end of the song. A partridge in a pair tree held steady at $210. The cost of two Turtle Doves doubled to $450. Three French Hens cost 15% more and will run you about $210. The price of Four Calling Birds remained the same at just under $600, while the Five Gold Rings cost 14.5% more this year and would run you $945. Six Geese-A-Laying went up 35% in price and cost about $570 and Seven Swans-A Swimming — the most expensive gift on the index — would cost $13,125, which is the same as 2019.
Eight Maids-A-Milking would cost less than any of the birds, costing “True Loves” only $58. This is unchanged from last year due to the fact that the federal minimum wage hasn’t changed and the price index assumes these are minimum wage workers.
Does The Christmas Price Index Matter?
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. Obviously this year, the service and entertainment sectors have taken a tremendous hit.
