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'On the 13th day I got the bill ...'Cost of '12 Days of Christmas' up slightly, even more so on the Net
NEW YORK (CNNfn) -- It's going to cost you a little more to keep your true love happy this Christmas, according to a new study, and the price will go a-leaping even higher if you go shopping online. PNC Advisors, a member of the PNC Financial Services Group, said the 2000 Christmas Price Index, which tracks the cost of all the gifts in the classic holiday song "The 12 Days of Christmas," has risen 1.8 percent less than the energy-induced Consumer Price Index rise of 3.4 percent and substantially less than the 5.1 percent spike of last year. The cost of all 364 gifts in the song, including all repetitions, would set you back more than $60,000, up from last year's "true cost of Christmas" of $59,719. 
The one-time cost of the gifts (the whole song would require our trusty true love to buy two turtledoves for 11 days, etc.) comes in at $15,210, compared to last year's figure of $14,940. This is the 16th year the tongue-in-cheek study has put a price on the various maids-a-milking, geese-a-laying and that pesky partridge in a pear tree. It is also the first time the survey compared online and retail shopping for these famous gifts. In what could be a blow to dot-com retailers, the price index found the online price tag for all this stuff to be more expensive than bricks and mortar sales. The total cyber-cost Christmas would be $93,187, including shipping, while the one-time gift purchase would be $23,103 over the Internet. Drop the shipping costs and the numbers fall to $73,984 and $17,701, respectively. Some of the items, such as French horns and the lactic laden maidens, were actually cheaper on the Web, PNC said, but overall, the 12 days of Net shopping could have you and your seven swans a-swimming in red ink. 
"Some of the higher prices," said Don Berdine, chief investment officer at PNC Advisors, "may be reflective of the volatility we've seen in the NASDAQ recently as the high-tech companies struggle with maintaining strong growth. We don't see many bargains on the Net." Berdine said the tight labor market in the entertainment sector pushed up the prices for the lords, pipers and drummers this year, ranging from a 3.5 percent to 4.76 percent increase. The uptick is similar to inflationary trends in the service sector of the U.S. economy as a whole, he said. "The most popular item without a doubt is the five golden rings," said Rebekah McCahan, investment strategist at the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based PNC Advisors, "although True Loves today prefer platinum, two-tone or diamonds over plain gold rings." Hey, True Love, what would you say to a George Foreman Grill and a nice Chia Pet? RELATED STORY: Some people want a lot more than their two front teeth RELATED SITES: PNC Bank |
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