The 12 Days of Christmas Price Index Barely Budged

Dec 13 2009

The 12 Days of Christmas Price Index Barely Budged

Tags: Christmas Price, Christmas Price Index, Index, Price Index | No Comments »

Watch prices go up? Not.

Around this time of year, the media likes to get into the holiday spirit by tracking the “12 Days of Christmas Price Index” as a way to look at the real CPI (consumer price index) through whimsical glasses. So this year, the cost increase of the 12 Days of Christmas rose a minute 0.9%, with the price for all the gifts for your true love during this holiday season ringing in at $87,402.81 (this is the total cost of all the gifts mentioned in the song from the 1st through the 12th day).

If you consider only the current cost for one set of each gift mentioned (take the stuff mentioned in one verse), then the price is $21,465.56, with the items bought offline. Purchased online, these same items will amount to $31,434.85 when you include shipping costs for the various live creatures in the list. This is one time that shopping online will really(!) cost you. That’s quite a hefty gift budget when you consider the absolute value of these items, but as far as price increases go, it’s no surprise that things have stayed relatively flat, year-to-year because of our sluggish economy. But who knew that all this would still cost such an arm and a leg?

Thanks to this site that’s entirely dedicated to the Christmas Price Index, you’ll find the following chart that shows how gift prices have risen from 1984 (cost: $12,673.56) to today, in 2009 (cost: $21,465.56) — all the while tracking the inflation rate.

Click the chart for more details.

Still, the 12 Days of Christmas Price Index barely budged from last year.

How about I transcribe the price index data here for you in this nifty table to see how these interesting, unique gifts are valued this year:

Christmas Gift	Price	% Change (YTY)
Partridge	$10.00	-50%
Pear Tree	$149.00	-25%
Two Turtle Doves	$55.98	1.8%
Three French Hens	$45.00	50%
Four Calling Birds	$599.96	0%
Five Golden Rings	$499.95	42.90%
Six Geese-A-Laying	$150.00	-37.5%
Seven Swans-A-Swimming	$5,250.00	-6.3%
Eight Maids-A-Milking	$58.00	10.7%
Nine Ladies Dancing	$5,473.07	15%
Ten Lords-A-Leaping	$4,413.61	0%
Eleven Pipers Piping	$2,284.80	0%
Twelve Drummers Drumming	$2,475.20	0%
Total (Whole Song)	$87,402.81	0.9%
Total (One Verse)	$21,465.56	0.9%

This table is based on this article.

Some peculiar things I noticed about this index: eight maids a milking cost only $58? Supposedly, it’s because they fall under the “unskilled labor” category. But wow, that’s quite a huge difference in cost relative to what the entertainment sector charges, as represented by dancers, leapers and musicians. In general, there’s been no increase in wages either, due to the weak job market, except with those who received a hike in the minimum wage (again, the maids’ wages are up by 10.7%) and those who dance (dancers’ wages are up by 15% for reasons I’m not entirely sure about). And the prices for various types of fowl are all over the map, with swans commanding major bucks at $750 a piece. It’s also nice to see how well our precious metals investments have performed this year: up 42.90% for gold rings!

So how is it going with the holiday gift giving? How is your Christmas budget holding up this year? For me, my budget has been well under control, since I’m sticking to the practical stuff for my true loves.

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