'Tis the season to be jolly. Well, maybe not so much this holiday season since the economy hasn't been the best this year.
Even with the down economy, we can still have some fun looking at the prices of gifts from a certain famous Christmas carol, "The 12 Days of Christmas."
The nice folks at PNC Financial Group Services, Inc. (PNC) have been collecting data yearly for almost 26 years to see how much it would cost to buy everything from partridges in pear trees to drummers. In 1984, the perfect Christmas cost $12,673 and that's only if you sing the last verse of the song.
The prices rose steadily, until in 1995, the price fell dramatically to $12,481. It continued rising ever since, and the 2009 Christmas would lighten your wallet by $21,465 about 2% above the 2008 Christmas.
Does it help you budget your holiday shopping? Not unless your idea of Christmas presents is swans. It seems changes in the PNC Christmas index are mostly due to the large swings in prices for those beautiful birds which is more than half (56%) of the total cost of all gifts combined when each verse of the song is repeated throughout the song.
We took a stab at trying to figure out why swans went down in price and dancing ladies skyrocketed in the infographic below.
click here to see the full graphic
So what would you actually want for Christmas if you had a budget of $21,465? Here are some better gift ideas for the price to replace those arcane traditional gifts:
- Twelve drummers drumming ($2,475.20): Big screen TV and lounge chair
- Eleven pipers piping ($2,284.80): Macbook Pro
- Ten lords a-leaping ($4,413.61): Two nights in the Villa Suite at the Wynn Hotel
- Nine ladies dancing ($5,473): Season tickets to UCLA basketball
- Eight maids a-milking ($58): Chocolates!
- Seven swans a-swimming ($5,250): A vacation in Paris and Barcelona
- Six geese a-laying ($150): New pair of boots
- Five golden rings ($499.95): One diamond ring
- Four calling birds ($599.95): Digital SLR camera
- Three French hens ($45): Set of DVDs from Cameron Crowe
- Two turtle doves ($55.98): Bottle of Patron Silver
- A partridge in a pear tree ($159.99): Dinner at Morton's The Steakhouse
