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The Cost Of Christmas
A quick economics lesson. This comes up every year, and I really enjoy it. This year's is a little more interesting because you have to take into account that large birds are hard to come by because of bird flu, and in some cases you can't get what you want because of travel and shipping restrictions. French Hens, for instance, you can't get from France, but you can get them from American breeders, so shipping is cheaper.
Now to go find the one about how fast Santa has to be travelling to get all the presents delivered in one night...
Now to go find the one about how fast Santa has to be travelling to get all the presents delivered in one night...
| 1984 | 2004 | 2005 | chg 04-05 | |
| One Partridge in a Pear Tree | $32.52 | $93.00 | $104.99 | 12.90% |
| Partridge | 12.57 | 15.00 | 15.00 | 0.00% |
| Pear Tree | 19.95 | 78.00 | 89.99 | 15.40% |
| Two Turtle Doves | 47.71 | 40.00 | 40.00 | 0.00% |
| Three French Hens | 14.78 | 45.00 | 45.00 | 0.00% |
| Four Calling Birds | 280.00 | 396.00 | 399.96 | 1.00% |
| Five Gold Rings | 275.00 | 255.00 | 325.00 | 27.50% |
| Six Geese-a-Laying | 150.00 | 210.00 | 300.00 | 42.90% |
| Seven Swans-a-Swimming | 7,000.00 | 3,500.00 | 4,200.00 | 20.00% |
| Eight Maids-a-Milking | 26.80 | 41.20 | 41.20 | 0.00% |
| Nine Ladies Dancing | 1,511.50 | 4,400.13 | 4,576.14 | 4.00% |
| 10 Lords-a-Leaping | 1,679.45 | 4,039.08 | 4,039.08 | 0.00% |
| 11 Pipers Piping | 770.56 | 2,053.20 | 2,053.20 | 0.00% |
| 12 Drummers Drumming | 834.78 | 2,224.30 | 2,224.30 | 0.00% |
| Total Christmas Price Index | 12,623.10 | 17,296.91 | 18,348.87 | 6.10% |
| True cost of Christmas in song | 62,427.10 | 66,334.46 | 72,608.02 | 9.50% |
| "Core" index, excluding swans | 13,796.91 | 14,148.87 | 2.60% |
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(I saw a series of letters one time that purported to be from a woman whose beloved had sent her each of the items in the song on each of Christmas. It started out with "the little partridge is so sweet, this is a lovely gift", progressed to describing her apartment as a "veritable river of $h!+", and ending with the woman's attorney sending the man a restraining order, as the woman had been admitted to a mental institution after suffering a nervous breakdown.)
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Ok...
If they're NOT talking rental, how are they coming up w/ these figures? I'm a little alarmed to think someone has figured out a price for human beings, though I bet you could get 9 ladies dancing w/ a good dj & a few bottles of tequila, which would run you a LOT less than $4k. ;-)
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