12 Days of Christmas Prices Up 2.7 Percent for 2023

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

It’s perhaps the weirdest list of Christmas gifts anyone every sent to someone they loved, yet we continue to sing of it every holiday season.

“The 12 Days of Christmas” includes a silly array of birds, musicians, farm workers, jewelry and dancers, and pulling it all together gets more costly every year.

In 2023, the total for the gifts would cost $46,729.86 ($52,024.03 if you buy them online), according to PNC Bank, which puts together an annual Christmas Price Index, a play on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, and shows a 2.7 percent increase in prices for the 12 days of gifts this season.

The prices of five items remained steady from 2022, while bank officials said labor costs accounted for most of the other increases.

“Certain industries are experiencing stickier inflation than others, some of which is well beyond the (Federal Reserve’s) control,” Amanda Agati, chief investment officer for PNC’s Asset Management Group, said in statement. “The good news is that wage growth is now higher than the PNC CPI, which should help True Loves deck the halls this year, considering we are still in a high-inflation environment.”

The highest increase came in the price of exotic turtle doves, which are 25 percent  more expensive than last year with a price tag of $750. The most expensive of the gifts – 10 lords-a-leaping — went up by 4 percent to $14,539.20.

Here’s a breakdown of the song’s shopping list:

·       Twelve drummers drumming: $3,468.02, up 6.2 percent

·       Eleven piper piping: $3,207.38, up 6.2 percent

·       Ten lords-a-leaping: $14,539.20, up 4 percent

·       Nine ladies dancing: $8,308.12, no price change

·       Eight maids-a-milking: $58, no price change

·       Seven swans-a-swimming: $13,125, no price change

·       Six geese-a-laying: $780, up 8.3 percent

·       Five golden rings: $1,245, no price change

·       Four calling birds, $599.96, no price change

·       Three French hens: $330, up 3.5 percent

·       Two turtle doves: $750, up 25 percent

·       A partridge in a pear tree: $319.18, up 13.9 percent