The Twelve Days of Christmas Will Cost You $41,000

The 12 Days of Christmas is yet another aspect of Christmas that was a part of Christian theology but might be better known as a rather silly and secular holiday song.  In Christianity, the 12 days mark the span between the birth of Christ (December 25) and January 5, the night before the coming of the three wise men (Magi) on January 6. That ending date is the Epiphany, sometimes called Three Kings’ Day or Little Christmas.  Twelfth Night is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “the evening of January 5th, the day before Epiphany, which traditionally marks the end of Christmas celebrations”

In a totally secular approach to the 12 days based on the song , PNC (the bank folks) have been tracking how much it would cost to buy all that stuff in the 12 days song.

The total costs of everything this year would be more than $41,000. That’s up $2,000 from 2019. I guess this is about inflation.

One thing that didn’t get hit by inflation though is the eight maids a-milking. How come? The federal minimum wage stayed the same.

Why compare to 2019 data? PNC says that is a better gauge of the impacts of inflation before the pandemic’s effects took hold of the global economy.

Two turtle doves will set you back $450.00. That’s up 50%. Apparently great volatility in the bird markets in 2021. So, no big surprise that 3 French Hens went up 40%. I should have invested in birds this year.

But it’s a bit confusing that 4 Four Calling Birds (Are those like cardinals?) is still $599.96 – no change from 2019. Why are we downgrading calling birds? Still, not cheap.

I don’t think I was fully conscious of how many winged things are in this song. 6 geese and 7 swans too?  Is this really what your true love would want? Not my true love, who said she’d take the 5 gold rings. Not bad at $895. Only up 8.5%  because of slight gold commodity and retail price increases.

To add some music – though just pipes and drums – will see you back $2,943.93 (+7.1%) for 11 pipers and $3,183.17 for 12 drummers.  Or you could just use Spotify and play some love songs.