{"id":304185,"date":"2025-12-08T01:20:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T01:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/304185\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T01:20:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T01:20:24","slug":"true-love-in-for-pricey-holiday-shopping-season-according-to-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/304185\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018True Love\u2019 in For Pricey Holiday Shopping Season According to Data"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PNC<\/a>According to PNC\u2019s Christmas Price Index, the final price tag to buy all of the gifts in the song \u201cThe Twelve Days of Christmas\u201d comes to $51,476.12 this year. (PNC)<\/p>\n

STATEPOINT \u2014 True Love is at it again this holiday season \u2014 and paying more than ever. According to PNC\u2019s Christmas Price Index, the final price tag to buy all of the gifts in the song \u201cThe Twelve Days of Christmas\u201d comes to $51,476.12 this year, headlined by drastic increases in the price of gold and the famed partridge\u2019s Pear Tree.<\/p>\n

For more than 40 years, PNC has tracked the price of the birds, entertainers, and other gifts that comprise the classic holiday song as part of its Christmas Price Index, a light-hearted take on the Bureau of Labor Statistics\u2019 Consumer Price Index. Fulfilling True Love\u2019s shopping list will cost 4.5% more in 2025 than it did in 2024, outpacing the BLS index, which rose 3% from October 2024 to October 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year\u2019s index reflects pressures from a tight labor market and lingering global economic uncertainties,\u201d said Amanda Agati, chief investment officer of PNC\u2019s Asset Management Group. \u201cHowever, tariffs are not a driver at all because True Love\u2019s shopping list only includes domestically produced goods and services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highlights from this year\u2019s index:<\/p>\n

The gold standard<\/p>\n

For two years, the price of The Five Gold Rings stayed flat, but that brief run of stability is over. The rings jumped by 32.5% \u2014 the biggest increase in the CPI this year. That\u2019s an actual annual price increase of more than $400, reflecting a surge in gold prices overall. Inflation, expected Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, and a declining U.S. dollar have pushed investors to precious metals in 2025.
\nOverall, just more than half the gifts rose in price in 2025. Aside from gold, the biggest movers were the Partridge and the Pear Tree, and the Ten Lords-a-Leaping. For the former, the overall 13.5% increase is entirely attributable to the Pear Tree, reflecting increases in the price of labor, land and fertilizer and also serving as a proxy for U.S. housing costs.
\nThe Ten Lords-a-Leaping have consistently grown in price over the life of the index \u2014 aside from 2020 pandemic restrictions on live entertainment. The lords remained the highest priced overall gift in the index at $15,579.65 and are a reflection of the growing cost of performers. The four entertainment-related gifts all increased in price in 2025, with the aggregate price increasing by 5.4%.<\/p>\n

Status quo for birds<\/p>\n

Aside from the Six Geese-a-Laying, which rose by 3.3% this season, the other four gifts consisting entirely of birds cost the same as they did in 2024.
\nHistorically, the bird gifts are some of the most consistently priced in the CPI, with both the Four Calling Birds and the Seven Swans-a-Swimming remaining unchanged for more than a decade. The Swans \u2014 formerly the most expensive gift in the index are only roughly $5 more than they were in 1984. Despite their consistency, their elevated total price of $13,125 has historically inflated the index, leading to a \u201ccore index,\u201d which measures growth in the CPI independent of the Swans. This year that grew by 6.1%.<\/p>\n

Online shopping relief<\/p>\n

Trekking from store to store for all these goods can be cumbersome, but it\u2019s ultimately cheaper than fulfilling True Love\u2019s list online for $55,748.05 \u2014 shipping and packaging all those birds is expensive.<\/p>\n

Getting technical<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ever heard or sung \u201cThe Twelve Days of Christmas,\u201d you know the verses repeat after each gift is introduced. If you\u2019re feeling traditional and wanted to buy all the gifts as the verses repeat, you\u2019ll pay the \u201cTrue Cost of Christmas,\u201d which is $218,542.98 in 2025.<\/p>\n

PNC\u2019s Christmas Price Index is now in its 42nd year. Visit the PNC Christmas Price Index website<\/a> for more information and interactive charts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Fed\u2019s recent focus on looser monetary policy, it will be interesting to see where the CPI shakes out in 2026,\u201d says Agati. \u201cWill we get the gift of substantially lower inflation, or will still-elevated inflation be the proverbial lump of coal in shoppers\u2019 and investors\u2019 stockings? It all depends on whether the purple haze of policy uncertainty dissipates in the new year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to PNC\u2019s Christmas Price Index, the final price tag to buy all of the gifts in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-304185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-personalfinance","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304185","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=304185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}