Inflation & Christmas Ornaments 🙈🎁

👉🏻👉🏻How much would 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' gifts cost? In 2024 dollars, it's a lot.
Giving your true love every item from "The Twelve Days of Christmas" will cost you 5.4% more this year. That's more than double last year's 2.7% increase and the annual inflation rate of 2.6% recently reported in the October consumer price index.
As a whole, the 12 presents mentioned in the last verse of the well-known Christmas carol would cost $49,263. According to the 40th annual PNC Christmas Price Index, that amounts to a $2,533 increase from 2023. PNC also calculates the cost of buying all the gifts mentioned and repeated throughout. That price tag surpassed $200,000 for the second year and totaled $209,272.
Of the 12 items mentioned in the song, five were unchanged from last year.
Did inflation affect the PNC CPI increase?
Yes and no. Overall prices increased, but several gifts had no change.
"Believe it or not, we're still seeing the cause and effect of the pandemic-inflation hangover, even nearly five years later," wrote Amanda Agati, a chief investment officer, in PNC's release. "With years of steep price increases, we'd think inflation has nowhere to go, but we'd be wrong. This latest PNC CPI is an accurate reflection of what we're seeing in the market."
The overall price increase for tech-savvy Santas who shopped online was 3.9% - more than a percentage point lower than the increase for in-store shoppers. But the convenience of shopping from home still cost $4,810 more because of high shipping and packaging expenses that haven't decreased since the pandemic.
"Buying the same gifts year after year may seem boring," Agati wrote. "But keeping track of changes in your spending enables you to make brilliant moves with your money."