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

[billthetailor.livejournal.com]

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