’12 Days Of Christmas’ Gifts Might Be A Better Bargain Compared To Other Presents In 2018
If you happen to fall in that small group of people who still buy gifts for each of the 12 days of Christmas, you may want to consider actually sticking to the gifts mentioned in the classic Christmas carol.
According to Fortune, while inflation has affected most items in the U.S. in the past years, the items listed in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” have only increased in cost about half as much as standard inflation rates have affected other items.
Even so, the items listed aren’t exactly what one could consider to be cheap. All told, the 12 items on the list will still rack up a bill of more than $39,000, which is only approximately 1.2 percent higher than last year. On average, the rest of the economy has been affected by an increase of around 2.5 percent thus far in 2018.
The difference in the price increase for other gifts and those listed in the classic song can in part be attributed to the plunging cost of gold, given that following the instructions in the tune will require bringing five golden rings. The cost of gold means that those five 14-carat gold rings will actually cost $75 less than they would have cost you in 2017.
Birds, various breeds of which in their different states seem to be a popular gift in the song, have largely the same cost in 2018 as they did last year, with just one single exception: Egg-laying geese have become exponentially more expensive this year. As Fortune points out, “static federal minimum wage means nine ladies dancing will receive the same compensation as they did last year.” The same, of course, goes for the eight maids-a-milking. Interestingly, the cost of keeping cows has not been factored into the deal, and could result in a price hike on that one.
With the high skill demand for the lords-a-leaping, pipers piping, and drummers drumming, their cost has increased, especially with the labor market tightening.
The publication lists the exact cost of each item mentioned in the song, as well as the percentage increase in price from 2017 to 2018.
One partridge in a pear tree will set you back $220.13, which is a 0.1 percent increase from last year. Two turtle doves will cost $375, three French hens will come to a bill of $181.50, and four calling birds will be $599.96, all three of which are the same as in 2017.
The five gold rings will equal a total of $750, which is down 9.1 percent from their cost in 2017. The 8.3 percent increase in the cost of the six geese-a-laying will mean they come to a tally of $390. Seven swans-a-swimming will cost you a whopping $13,125, which is surprisingly the same as in 2017.
Eight maids-a-milking will come to an even more shocking total of just $58, while the nine ladies dancing will cost $7,552.84, neither of which has enjoyed an increase this year. On the contrary, the price of the 10 lords-a-leaping has increased by 3 percent, to $10,000, while the 11 pipers piping and the 12 drummers drumming have both been gifted 3.5 percent increases, taking their tallies to $2,804.40 and $3,038 respectively.
