The Cost of Christmas: A Relative Bargain?
On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!
–From “The Twelve Days of Christmas”
Each year, PNC Financial Services publishes its annual Christmas Price Index, which measures how much it would cost to buy each of the gifts in the holiday carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
Given the relative rarity of some items on the list and the fact that more than a few have not yet been commoditized by the Chinese (or others like it), you might have thought that the cost of celebrating Christmas would have held its own versus the broader consumer price index.
But you would be wrong. In fact, while the PNC index has gained 69% since it began in 1984, the headline CPI has more than doubled (through October, at least).
In fairness, much of the difference comes down to the double-digit hit that the price of a partridge in a pear tree, five gold rings, and seven swans-a-swimming took in 1995.
Still, I guess some might find it good to know that Christmas is a relative bargain.
Source:
PNC Christmas Price Index
http://www.pncchristmaspriceindex.com/CPI/index.html
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November 30th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Gee, I’m glad they waste their time on this drivel.
November 30th, 2009 at 10:00 am
This year, there were over 45,000 applicants for the 50 positions requiring people (12 drummers, 11 pipers, 10 lords, 9 ladies, 8 maids), and it’s only seasonal work.
November 30th, 2009 at 10:32 am
Maybe because the basket of goods used in calculating CPI gets updated more than once every four centuries.
Here are some 21st century Christmas goods:
Zhu Zhu Pets, digital cameras, watches, golf clubs, designer clothes.
Barry, maybe you should archive your current Amazon wish list and price it every year. Probably a much better index than this pap.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:51 am
PNC is overweight food in this index, which ties into the divergence between food/energy and core in your charts of the next post. Also, no ‘real estate’ (not that the real index has anything remotely close to a good representation of RE).
November 30th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
MA,
good point, as well, with http://clusty.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&query=Human+Trafficking alive, and well, the surfeit of trained Peasants has kept a lid on the relative price of such ‘nicities’..
Onlooker,
if you, too, were a TARP recipient, you’d, as well, have ‘plenty of “Free Time”‘, no?
November 30th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Does this factor in the total of 364 gifts received if the entire song is sung?
Whenever possible, I save time by singing the single verse summary version:
On all twelve days of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
12 drummers drumming,
22 pipers piping,
30 lords a-leaping,
36 ladies dancing,
40 maids a-milking,
42 swans a-swimming,
42 geese a-laying,
40 golden rings,
36 calling birds,
30 French hens,
22 turtle doves,
And 12 partridges in pear trees!
November 30th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
I’d like to see this chart priced in gold over the same time period.
Or perhaps since 1780 (Earliest known printed version of the rhyme, per Snopes )