If you were to buy someone all the gifts in the song The 12 Days of Christmas, how much would it actually cost you?

The 12 Days of Christmas is a classic holiday song. But how much did the "true love" in the song actually spend on all the items? In 2017, the "true love" would have spent: $34,558 if they had bought each item. However, as the song increases days, there is repetition in the gifts. So if you bought the new gift each day and all the subsequent gifts from the previous days, the "true love" would be spending: $157,558. It's a lot of birds.

PNC Financial Services Group comes up with the "Christmas Price Index" which has been tracking each price in the song since 1984. The current value of each item is up 85% since their first report.

It's breaks down like this:

  • A partridge - $20
  • A Pear Tree - $199.95
  • Two turtle doves (from St. George Island, FL) - $375
  • Three French Hens - $181.50
  • Four Calling Birds - $599.96
  • Five Golden Rings - $825 (Spike in 2017 due to Gold costs)
  • Six Geese-a-Laying - $360
  • Seven Swans-a-Swimming - $13,125
  • Eight Maids-a-Milking (Assuming you hire them to milk for 1 hour) - $58
  • Nine Ladies Dancing - $7,553
  • 10 Lords-a-Leaping - $5,509
  • 11 Pipers Piping - $2,708.40
  • 12 Drummers Drumming - $2,934

I didn't know that Andy from "The Office" made that kind of money. He was a pretty mediocre salesman.

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