{"id":302374,"date":"2025-12-07T01:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T01:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/302374\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T01:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T01:16:09","slug":"i-asked-chatgpt-how-much-the-12-days-of-christmas-would-cost-in-todays-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/302374\/","title":{"rendered":"I Asked ChatGPT How Much \u2018The 12 Days of Christmas\u2019 Would Cost in Today\u2019s Money"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you ever listen to \u201cThe Twelve Days of Christmas\u201d and think to yourself, \u201cMan, that person\u2019s true love must be loaded\u201d? While you\u2019re not sure what the going rate is for lords a-leaping, you\u2019re pretty sure it\u2019s not cheap \u2014 to say nothing of the insurance fees<\/a> on five golden rings or the cost of birdseed for the turtle doves, French hens, geese a-laying and the partridge in the pear tree.<\/p>\n

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Well, I listened to that song recently and, like Carrie Bradshaw, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder: If I were the lucky gift-receiver in the song, how much would all those extravagant gifts<\/a> from my \u201ctrue love\u201d cost in today\u2019s money? This kind of research could easily take all day, so to expedite matters, I turned to my own holiday helper, ChatGPT<\/a>, for answers.<\/p>\n

Introducing the PNC Bank Christmas Price Index<\/p>\n

Like any good holiday caroler clearing their throat, ChatGPT warmed up by explaining that the total cost would depend on whether I counted just one of each gift \u201cor every gift given over all 12 days (because the song repeats).\u201d OK, good point \u2014 but it also gave me a case of the holiday vapors, because I do not have enough room in my house for all those maids a-milking.<\/p>\n

ChatGPT said it used the most recent PNC Bank Christmas Price Index<\/a> for 2025 as a source for its prices. While it didn\u2019t explain the index in detail, I did some online sleuthing and found that each year, PNC Bank calculates the current cost for one set of each gift given by the aforementioned true love in the song.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s all in good holiday fun, PNC Bank says it modeled its own list to mirror the U.S. Consumer Price Index<\/a>. According to the bank\u2019s website, \u201cIt is similar to the U.S. Consumer Price Index \u2026 a fun way to measure consumer spending and trends in the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the real gift of ChatGPT: While it can provide answers quickly, it can also guide you to other interesting and creative sources of information.<\/p>\n

Trending Now: 5 Little Luxuries From Costco That Make Great Stocking Stuffers<\/a><\/p>\n

How Much Did My True Love Spend on Me?<\/p>\n

Knowing that I wanted to gauge just how well my true love was treating me this season, ChatGPT informed me that if they gave me one of each gift, \u201cThe total cost for a single run of the 12 gifts (one partridge in a pear tree, two turtle doves, etc.) is \u2248 US $51,476.12 in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, if my true love gave me every gift as the song repeats \u2014 as in, 364 gifts total \u2014 the total cost would be roughly $218,542.98 this year.<\/p>\n

Aw, honey, you shouldn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n

The Yuletide Breakdown<\/p>\n

Since I wanted to understand how that larger sum adds up \u2014 and stay closer to the spirit of the song \u2014 ChatGPT distilled the PNC Christmas Price Index into a digestible list.<\/p>\n

First, it shared a breakdown of purchasing the gifts in the song one time \u2014 as in, a one-time purchase of two turtle doves.<\/p>\n

Partridge in a pear tree: $420.18<\/p>\n

Three French hens: $346.50<\/p>\n

Four calling birds: $599.96<\/p>\n

Five gold rings: $1,649.90<\/p>\n

Seven swans-a-swimming: $13,125<\/p>\n

Eight maids-a-milking: $58<\/p>\n

Nine ladies dancing: $8,856.88<\/p>\n

Ten lords-a-leaping: $16,836.14<\/p>\n

Eleven pipers piping: $3,797.48<\/p>\n

Twelve drummers drumming: $4,106.08<\/p>\n

\u201cThen if you carried out the full cumulative \u2018song gifts\u2019 (i.e. 1 + 3 + 6 + 10 \u2026 gifts) it hits that ~$218,500 mark,\u201d ChatGPT wrote.<\/p>\n

A General Summary of Costs<\/p>\n

ChatGPT offered a few observations about some of the high-ticket items<\/a> on my true love\u2019s list \u2014 starting with the fact that swans are far more expensive than both \u201ceveryday\u201d birds like hens and calling birds, as well as smaller items like the rings.<\/p>\n

The lords, ladies, pipers and drummers also didn\u2019t come cheap. These performers and domestic laborers comprise the bulk of the \u201clabor and entertainment\u201d cost.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/p>\n

While I\u2019m not exactly sure where I\u2019m going to plant the pear tree for my partridge or what drummers drumming prefer for breakfast, if there\u2019s one thing I do know it\u2019s that my true love has a serious chunk of change to throw around. I also know that ChatGPT can be a great source for synthesizing information quickly, and it can lead me to fascinating sources \u2014 and that may be the greatest gift of all.<\/p>\n

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More From GOBankingRates<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com<\/a>: I Asked ChatGPT How Much \u2018The 12 Days of Christmas\u2019 Would Cost in Today\u2019s Money<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Did you ever listen to \u201cThe Twelve Days of Christmas\u201d and think to yourself, \u201cMan, that person\u2019s true…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,121394,4176,4174,4175,121393,121395,121396,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-302374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-christmas-price-index","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-personal-finance","12":"tag-personalfinance","13":"tag-pnc-bank","14":"tag-the-twelve-days-of-christmas","15":"tag-turtle-doves","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}