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The traditional English carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” has long been a favorite during the holiday season, standing the test of time through the centuries and inspiring hilarious parodies like Bob Rivers’ “Twelve Pains of Christmas” .
But the song, which counts from Christmas to Epiphany on January 6, has also become the pointer to a capricious way of measuring year-on-year inflation. Pennsylvania-based PNC Bank and other financial institutions have tracked the costs of each gift set, from “Twelve Drummers Drumming” to “Partridge in a Pear Tree” to see exactly how much it might cost a man surrender each to his true love. .
PNC Christmas Price Index indicated that the total cost of song gifts increased by 5.4% from 2023, totaling just under $50,000.
Meanwhile, Texas-based trading firm Swyft Filings noted in 2023 that costs would also vary by state. Taxes, regulations and other factors would be the most likely variables. The company found that California, Hawaii and Washington were the most expensive and Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama the least expensive, given this variation.
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Color illustration by Laurie McAdam of a partridge in a pear tree. (The Modesto Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Here’s a breakdown of the countdown costs starting on the 12th day.
12 Drummers Drums
PNC Bank cited wage inflation as the driving factor behind the increase in rent for a 12-piece drum corps this year. Its estimated cost was $4,017; an increase of 15.6% compared to 2023.
Various websites estimated the average cost of a battery for two hours to be between $250 and $500, depending on the set. Taking the average of that rate and multiplying it by a dozen drummers puts the cost at around $4,500, plus gratuity, of course.
11 Pipers Piping
Eleven flutists, or hiring an 11-piece wind ensemble, have a similar cost per head as drummers.
In that regard, PNC Bank estimated the same 15.6% increase as the battery dozen, with a final cost of $3,715.
10 Leaping Gentlemen
In the British political system, a lordship is a title of nobility or gentry dating back to feudal England, and the House of Lords is the current name for the upper house. of the Parliament.
Putting the phrase in an American context, it remains illegal to physically or proverbially buy a senator for any purpose, including jumping, and public corruption has often been a topic in the media.
However, some estimates have been published on what it would cost to pay 10 senators or lords to jump.
PNC reported that 10 Gentlemen at the Jump would be the most expensive purchase of the 12, with an estimated 2024 cost of $15,579.65, a 7.2% increase from 2023.
Nine dancing ladies
According to the website GigSalad, the average cost of a dance group for a 30-minute performance is between $200 and $400. Freelance platform UpWork listed dancers for hire ranging from $30 an hour to more than $100 an hour.
The average cost per dancer per hour multiplied by nine comes out to $405 per half hour.
According to PNC tracking, nine women dancing in professional group form would cost $8,557 for an undisclosed set time, up 3% from last year.
Eight milking maids
Milk prices have risen again in recent months, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. In November, the average price per gallon of whole milk was $4.14, up from $4 at that time last year.
The ubiquitous drink experienced a spike during COVID and leveled off in the two years since, but is on the rise again.
Adding dairies to the equation, PNC Bank estimated a cost of $58, unchanged from 2023.
Seven swans swimming
A swan farm in the Midwest listed the price per bird at $400. In 2020, the city of Lakeland, Florida was dealing with an overpopulation of about 80 swans in a community lake outside of Tampa. The current price was also $400, according to CNN.
Listings on BirdsNow ranged from $400 to $2500, with a pair much more expensive than two individuals. In total, PNC estimated the total cost to be more than $13,000, with no increase from 2023.
Six laid geese
While a goose farm in South Dakota listed the price of an 8- to 10-pound goose for consumption at $140 each, calculating at $8,400 for a half-dozen, the cost of live egg-laying geese it was different
Prices for live geese averaged $40 each online, or $240 for six.
The PNC Christmas Index, however, put the total cost at $900, or 15% more than in 2023.
Five gold rings
on Monday, gold futures it was around $2,600 an ounce. While PNC estimated the total cost of five gold rings to be $1,245, the actual value may vary based on carats, ring size and other factors.
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Gold rings at a fair in Lower Saxony, Germany. (Getty)
Four Screaming Birds
There is some debate as to whether the original lyrics are really “four colly birds” versus “four screaming birds”. A colly bird is a blackbird in English vernacular. The term “colly” has its roots in how something looks when blackened by coal dust.
The cost of one live blackbird is between $150 and $225, and PNC estimates that four cost just under $600, marking the lower end of that price spectrum. The bank estimates that the cost has not changed since 2023.
Three French hens
The French Bresse hen is considered one of the most sought after hens in the world.
Butchers in Paris were selling French chickens for 40 euros a kilo, or about $92 a pound. Live chickens bought from U.S. farms ranged from a few dollars to about $250 as of Monday.
In the PNC index, the cost of three French hens rose 5% from 2023 to about $347.
Two doves
In the decade of 1992 “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister visits “Duncan’s Toy Chest,” a play at the FAO Schwarz department store in Manhattan.
The elderly owner, played by Eddie Bracken, offers Kevin any of his store’s Christmas tree ornaments.
Mr. Duncan tells Kevin that he should keep one pigeon and give the second one to “a very special person”.
“Doves are a symbol of friendship and love”, he explains. “As long as you each have a dove, you’ll be friends forever.”
Ultimately, Kevin gives Brenda Fricker’s “Pigeon Lady” the second pigeon at the end of the film after helping capture the film’s villains, Daniel Stern’s Marv and Joe Pesci’s Harry.
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While this movie pair may have been priceless, the PNC index put the price of a pair at $750, and European turtle doves themselves are considered an endangered species.
And a partridge in a pear tree
The Home Depot listed Bartlett pear trees at about $58 this week.
Also, in a North American context, Alaska’s state bird, the willow grouse, is a more common type of western partridge.
Hungarian “Huns” or gray partridges were also introduced into the northwestern Lower 48 in the early 20th century.
Costs for live retriever meat and retriever meat were not available Monday, but PNC estimated the combined cost at $160. The bank reported that the cost of the bird remained the same, but the price of the pear rose from 2023.
In their report on their own estimates, PNC officials told the bank’s website that the Internet has made the calculation and possible availability of Old English carol items much more accessible in the 40 years since you have calculated your costs.
“Believe it or not, we’re still seeing the cause and effect of the hangover from pandemic inflation, even nearly five years later,” PNC Asset Management Group Chief Investment Officer Amanda Agati said in a communicated
A willow partridge, Alaska’s state bird, in Denali National Park. (Getty)
“With years of strong price increases, we think inflation has nowhere to go, but we’d be wrong. This latest PNC CPI is an accurate reflection of what we’re seeing in the market.”
Online shopping for lyrical items was estimated to be more expensive online than in a physical store due to shipping costs.
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The global cost of the 12 days of Christmas rose by 133% in the last four decades, with factors including minimum wage increase affecting especially the gifts for hire such as pipers and timpani players.
If a fellow entrepreneur were to buy his beau the total 364 gifts from the 12-day gift party song, it would increase from 2023 by 3.6% to an estimated cost of $209,272.
