The Cost Of Christmas

[mapsedge]

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...

	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%

Comments

[eacole72.livejournal.com]

This begs the question... Is that $45 for 1 hen or for all 3?

(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.)

[billthetailor.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've read that! Funny stuff, if a little mean spirited.