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Yule pay more
Christmas Price Index goes up
November 12, 1996Web posted at: 4:20 p.m. EST
PHILADELPHIA (CNN) -- A rise in labor costs will make the 12 days of Christmas more expensive this year, after a nearly 22 percent decline in the cost last year.
The cost of one set each of the items in the song "The 12 Days of Christmas" rose 5.7 percent over last year, outpacing the overall inflation rate for the first nine months of 1996. The inflation rate was up 2.8 percent in that time.
According to the annual Christmas Price Index calculated by PNC Bank Corp. and reported in The Wall Street Journal, the cost of one set of the items rose to $13,196 from 1995s $12,482.
The biggest jump came for dancers with the Philadelphia Dance Company, where the performance fees of nine ladies dancing rose 25 percent. Milkmaids also drove the price up for 1996. An hour of work by eight maids-a-milking rose 11.8 percent to $38.
The 10 lords-a-leaping from the Pennsylvania Ballet did not see a rise in cost this year, although PNC economist Rebekah McCahan Fickling says that is likely to change next year under a new labor contract.
In 1995, prices dropped on the strength of declining costs for pear trees, gold rings and swans, but those items held relatively steady for 1996. The rise in the index for this year outpaced the overall inflation rate for the first nine months of 1996.
And for 12 Days purists, the true cost of all the items in the song -- multiplied by each time they're mentioned over 12 verses -- rose from $51,765 to $54,478.
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