We're 12 days from Christmas, so how much would "The 12 Days of Christmas" run you this year?
PNC Bank does an annual study on how much it would cost to buy everything from the song... and every year it goes up a little. This year with inflation, it really jumped. The answer this year is $45,523, up 10.5%. Or if you bought the items over and over each day like the song suggests, that's 364 total gifts, and over $197,000... That's about an 11% increase.
Here's a breakdown of how much it would cost to buy or hire all 12 things...
Twelve drummers drumming... $3,267 to hire them.
Eleven pipers piping... $3,021.
Ten lords-a-leaping... $13,980. It's the most expensive gift on the list. It's based on how much it would cost to hire ten dancers from the Philadelphia ballet... I'm thinking we can probably save a little money on this one... Do we need to go all the way to Philly to get some dancers?
Nine ladies dancing... $8,308. Based on hiring nine women from a modern dance company in Philly... Again with Philly... We can cut costs here but it's 2023 (almost) we have to give the ladies a raise to match the lords-a-leaping per dancer rate... RIGHT?!
Eight maids-a-milking... $58. Weird gift, but the cheapest on the list. That's eight women milking cows for an hour at the federal minimum wage of $7.25... The wage gap between leaping and dancing and milking cows is unacceptable... The maids-a-milking to go on strike.
Seven swans-a-swimming... $13,125.... Another place we can save money... either sub in some ducks or go to Lake Eola and just enjoy them for free.
Six geese-a-laying... $720.
Five gold rings... $1,245, up 39%. That's a bigger jump than anything else on the list. It's for five 14-carat gold rings according to a national jewelry chain.
Four calling birds... $600.
Three French hens... $319.
Two turtle doves... $600.
And a partridge in a pear tree... $280. The partridge costs the same as last year. But fertilizer prices are up, so pear trees have jumped 26%.
Check out the full breakdown and increase for each gift HERE