According to PNC, buying all 364 quirky gift items mentioned in the song "Partridge in a Pear Tree" would set you back $107,300 this year, the most since PNC began compiling the numbers in 1984. This year's cost is up 6.1 percent on last year.
By: Sarah Rappaport, News Assistant
Published: Monday, 26 Nov 2012 | 9:04 AM ET
CNBC
Buying your true love each item from classic Christmas song “The 12 Days of Christmas” will be more expensive than ever this year.
According to PNC, buying all 364 quirky gift items—from the “drummers drumming” to the “partridge in a pear tree” mentioned in the song— would set you back $107,300 this year, the most since PNC began compiling the numbers in 1984.
PNC, which measures the cost of buying the items in its Christmas Price’ index, said this year’s cost is up 6.1 percent on last year, much higher than the consumer price index (CPI) of 2.2 percent.
The firm’s research is likely to put cold water on the idea that consumer prices and inflation have remained subdued despite several rounds of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve.
But which gifts were to blame for the sharp increase in prices this year?
“The culprits this year were our feathered friends. The geese and the seven swans were up the most. And that was due to the drought we had in the United States that pushed up feed prices,” Jim Dunigan, managing executive of investments at PNC Wealth Management said on CNBC’s Worldwide Exchange.
Purchasing the “seven swans-a-swimming” is the most expensive gift at $7,000 according to Dunigan.
Getting your true love the “five golden rings” won’t be a cheap either. Dunigan said the price for the “five golden rings” went up 16 percent to $750 from $645 in 2011 due to the increase in gold prices.
PNC said it researches the price of the birds from the National Avery and gets labor costs for the “maids-a-milking” from the National Minimum Wage.
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