Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
The cost of Twelve Days of Christmas: $34,363.49
The cost of Twelve Days of Christmas: $34,363.49
Jan 12, 2026 4:37 AM

If you’ve been stuck at the mall listening to a song about ten Lords a-Leaping and eight Maids a-Milking you can blame the Jesuits.

Rumor has it they invented the Twelve Days of Christmas song as a catechism in code for persecuted Catholics in 16th-century England. The claim is that each of the items has a coded meaning (Old and New Testaments are the two turtle doves; three hens are the Wise Men; the Evangelists are the four calling birds; five gold rings speak of the five sacraments that should be received by all Catholics, etc.).

Whether that is true or not we’ll leave to the musicologists to decide. Since this is an economics blog will look at another question: How much would all that stuff cost?

For more than 30 years, the financial pany PNC has calculated the prices of the twelve gifts for their PNC Christmas Price Index.

The cost of the items for the 2016 season are $34,363.49. But that’s only if you bought the items once. If you consider the cumulative cost of all the gifts when you count each repetition in the song (364 gifts) you’d spend $156,507.88.

Surprisingly, the seven Swans-a-Swimming are the most expensive item ($13,125) and the most subject to fluctuation. If you take them out, the cost is only $21,238.49.

The PNC Christmas Price Index may seem silly, but it has some educational value since it’s similar to the U.S. Consumer Price Index, which measures the changing prices of goods and services like housing, food, clothing, transportation and more that reflect the spending habits of the average American. “It’s a fun way to measure consumer spending and trends in the economy,” says PNC. “So, even if Pipers Piping or Geese-a-Laying didn’t make your gift list this year, you can still learn a lot by checking out why their prices have increased or decreased over the years.”

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Love and Economics: From Contract to Cooperation
The subject of contracts is not particularly romantic, which is part of the reason I’d like to talk about contracts—and how we might reach beyond them. In some ways, e to overly ignore, downplay, or disregard contracts. Across the world, we see grandmaster politicians and planners trying to impose various “solutions” with the flicks of their wands, paying little attention to core featureslike trust and respect for property rights. Here in America, our government is increasingly bent on diluting or...
Explainer: President Obama’s Proposal for Free Tuition at Community College
Yesterday, in a short, videotaped preview of his ing State of the Union address, President Obama unveiled a new proposal: Make two years munity college free for all students who meet certain eligibility standards. Here is what you should know about the proposal. What would students have to do? Students would be required to munity college at least half-time, maintain a 2.5 GPA, and make steady progress pleting their program.” What munity colleges have to do to qualify? Community colleges...
Syrian Refugees Suffer In Cold
It is currently 3 degrees where I am. That is without the wind chill. (If you do not know what “wind chill” is, consider yourself blessed.) It is literally too cold to be outside for any length of time without danger of frostbite. And yet, I’m plaining. Syrian refugees in the Middle East have it much worse. Some three million Syrians are trying to cope with life in Lebanon refugee camps: tents with no heat, no wood to burn, little...
Why Human Dignity Matters in Economic Development (and Beyond)
“You have never met a mere mortal.” – C.S. Lewis God has called each of us to redemptive stewardship, crafting us in his own image that we might assume this calling in boldness and love. Thus, as we plex issues of poverty alleviation and seekto empower others on this path,we must be carefulthatourefforts affirm the dignity and destiny of the human person. As noted in the Acton Institute’s core principles, “the human person, created in the image of God, is...
Stewardship Is About More Than Money
“Stewardship is far more than the handling of our money. Stewardship is the handling of life, and time, and destiny.” –Lester DeKoster and Gerard Berghoef Stewardship as a term is tossed around rather widely and routinely, and even (or especially) in church settings, its presumed definition is often surprisingly narrow. Though often used in reference to tithing, fundraising, or financial management (and rightly so), we mustn’t forget that at a more basic level, stewardship is simply about our management of...
Persecution Of Christians: Will It Get Worse?
2014 was a terrible year for persecution of Christians. In Syria, North Korea and Somalia, Christians are routinely imprisoned and killed. In Iraq, 2014 saw the passage of a law requiring Christians to convert or pay an exorbitant tax. The other choice for Iraqi Christians is to flee. Open Doors has been tracking persecution of Christians around the world for 60 years. They have just released their latest report, and it makes a grim prediction: 2015 may very well be...
Unemployment as Economic-Spiritual Indicator — December 2014 Report
Series Note:Jobs are one of the most important aspects of a morally functioning economy. They help us serve the needs of our neighbors and lead to human flourishing both for the individual and munities. Conversely, not having a job can adversely affect spiritual and psychological well-being of individuals and families. Because unemployment is a spiritual problem, Christians in America need to understand and be aware of the monthly data on employment. Each month highlight thelatest numberswe need to know (see...
The Curious Politics of Financial Insecurity
In the Federalist Papers James Madison noted that “the mon and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society.” Madison’s observations continues to be proven correct. Even factors such as whether a person has a checking or savings account is strongly correlated with nearly every measure of political engagement, including which dominant political “faction”—Democrat or Republican—they’ll identify with. But...
Joseph Pearce on Religious Complexity in the Ukraine Conflict
John Couretas’s link today to the recent Christianity Today article on how Russian evangelicals “thank God for Putin,” reminded me of this excellent post last month from Joseph Pearce on plexities of religious tribalism in the Ukraine crisis. As ought to be expected, despite the Cold War posturing of both Western and Eastern media, the situation is not as simple as East vs. West or, for that matter, good vs. evil: Regardless of the relative merits of each side’s claims...
Russian Evangelicals, Like Most Russians, ‘Thank God for Putin’
In Christianity Today, Mark R. Elliott offers an interesting and balanced report that goes a long way to explaining why “evangelicals in Russia have e ardent fans of President Vladimir Putin because of Russia’s efforts to maintain its influence in Ukraine, its takeover of Crimea in 2014, and the widespread Russian belief that the West is to blame for the present economic woes on the home front.” I’m not a fan of Putin, but neither am I suffering from Russophobia....
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved