When do you normally start listening to Christmas music? In June? October? Thanksgiving?
I’m fine with it—in moderation. That said, there are a few songs that grate on me. In no particular order: the one from Wham!, Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, and The Twelve Days of Christmas. That last one mostly because I cannot imagine anyone ever truly being excited about some of those gifts. Maybe the gold rings… but a bird in a fruit tree?
I can say this for sure: that would be a house full of absolute chaos by the time we reached the twelfth day. Just to review, that’s a tree, roughly two dozen birds, more than thirty extra people dancing and leaping through the living-room, eight cows wandering around, and for good measure, pipers and drummers pushing over 100 decibels—pure chaos.
Believe it or not, there’s an interesting data set behind all of this. For the last 42 years, analysts have been calculating the true cost of purchasing every single gift in the song—what they call the “Christmas Price Index.”1
If you decided to lean into the madness this year and actually buy all twelve days’ worth of gifts, your total bill for 2025 would come to $51,476, up 4.5% from last year.
Those five gold rings saw the biggest jump on the list this year—up 32.5% to $1,650. According to the index, falling interest rates, a weaker U.S. dollar, and renewed investor interest in gold all played a role.
Even as a novelty index, the same forces that move real portfolios quietly show up.
The real surprise this year was the ten lords-a-leaping. At $16,836, they’re the most expensive item on the list. That’s because leaping lords aren’t just performers—they’re a production: choreography, rehearsal time, staging, costumes, and coordination. Not quite a Taylor Swift show, but still, production is expensive.
Not everything inflated.
Bird prices—turtle doves, French hens, calling birds, and swans—held steady this year. I assume they’re domestic… no tariffs.
Here’s the full list of gifts, with their estimated cost in 2025:
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Partridge in a Pear Tree: $420
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Turtle Doves: $750
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French Hens: $346
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Calling Birds: $600
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Gold Rings: $1,650
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Geese-a-Laying: $930
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Swans-a-Swimming: $13,125
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Maids-a-Milking: $58
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Ladies Dancing: $8,857
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Lords-a-Leaping: $16,836
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Pipers Piping: $3,797
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Drummers Drumming: $4,106
From a single partridge to the gravity-defying leaping lords, the Christmas Price Index offers a reminder: inflation quietly works its way into almost everything we touch.
Since its first reading of just over $20,000, this playful index has more than doubled—mirroring the same long-term forces we see across markets, wages, housing, and everyday life.
We hope this brings some levity to your holiday conversations. As always, whether you’d like to talk about bad holiday music, pricey swans, or anything else on your mind, we’re here when you need us.
From our team to your family, we wish you a Merry Christmas.
