The 12 Days of Xmas Gets Costlier

If you are thinking about buying your true love all the items for the 12 days of Christmas song this year, expect to shell out 6.1% more this year than last. The cost of gift giving has gone up.

Driven by several factors, including, believe it or not, the higher price of shipping birds, making your true love happy this year will cost you more than last. Yes, the Avian Flu scare has created a global fear of foul, and the cost of shipping these creatures around the world has gotten more expensive.

According to PNC Financial Services Group, Inc, a Pittsburgh, PA company, you can expect to shell out a total of $18,348 this year up from $17,293 last year. And this is IF you can get everything you want on your list.

PNC says higher energy costs, added to the domestic shipping and handling costs of geese, swans, and partridges has driven up the costs of many items. And forget about those French hens unless you are planning to stay in their country, as France has curtailed all international shipping of foul for fear of spreading Avian flu.

On Monday, November 28th, PNC released its 20th annual Christmas Price Index. This is a yearly analysis of the costs of goods and services required to fulfill the famous song, calculated on the premise that someone would buy all the things mentioned each and every day of the song.

Also credited to the higher bill is the higher costs are fuel prices, which drive up everything. But a recent run on gold has also driven up its price, so, to buy your true love those 5 gold rings, you can expect to pay well over $300 each time, almost a 28% increase over last year. Not only is the price of gold up this year, but so it seems is the demand for gold rings as well, making this increase even larger. Go figure.

Strangely, according to PNC “comparable” service costs, the cost of labor has remained fairly flat this year. Skilled laborers and servants as mentioned in the song have not become more expensive this year. Seems having someone to milk the cows, having ladies dance for you, or getting some leaping lords will not cost you more this year than it did last year.

But I think it is time to update this list, and being here on the MyMac website, perhaps we need a new Apple 12 Days Of Christmas, Apple style. Feel free to fill in the 12 days with your own list, and then sing the list to the tune of the 12 Days of Christmas, and tell me, is this not a better list that the original? I think it is.

Here is a starter list of gift ideas, but feel free to suggest other items that better fit the song for you. I picked these because they sounded right in the song to me, but your list may of course vary.

Day 1: An Apple I-Tunes Gift Certificate
Day 2: Two I-Pod Nanos
Day 3: Three Airport Extremes
Day 4: Four 12” Power Books
Day 5: Five G5 Towers
Day 6: Six I-Pod sleeves
Day 7: Seven i-sight cameras
Day 8: Eight Mac Minis
Day 9: Nine iPod Videos
Day 10: Ten: Wireless Keyboards
Day 11: Eleven 20” iMacs
Day 12: Twelve Flat-panel monitors

OK, once we get the list in, what would this all really cost? Well, if you do a bit of math, and assuming the song really does means that on Day 1 you get 1 item 1, and on Day 2, you get 2 items of number 2 and one more item of number 1, and day three you get three of item 3, 2 more of item 2, and 1 more of item 1, and so on for 12 days, then the totals of each item would look like this:

Item	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Totals	12	22	30	36	40	42	42	40	36	30	22	12
Cost Each	$15	199	199	999	1999	29	149	499	299	59	1699	799

So, after 12 days of Christmas, you get a total of 364 items. Once you fill in your own list of items, you can calculate your own 12 Days of Apple Christmas price, but for my list, the total was as follows:

Item	Total Cost
1	$180
2	$4378
3	$5970
4	$35964
5	$79960
6	$1218
7	$6258
8	$19960
9	$10764
10	$1770
11	$37378
12	$9588

So, for only $213,388, I can make my one true love very Apple happy for Christmas. Exactly what we are going to do with 40 G5 Towers is beyond me. Maybe one hell of a 13th Day of Christmas garage sale.

Happy Holidays Everyone
-Owen-