From the Guardian:
The festive season has never been a cheap affair but this year anyone seeking to earn the title "True Love" by showering their partner with gifts based on The 12 Days of Christmas, will have to stump up a whopping $21,080 (£14,071).
Every year since 1984, American investment group PNC Wealth Management has compiled a Christmas Price Index (CPI - geddit?) by pricing all the items in the song from the partridge right up to 12 drummers drumming.
....
But the bulk of the dramatic rise in the Christmas version is due to the cost of the seven swans-a-swimming which have risen by 33.33% to $5,600. The scarcity of swans has always made them one of the most volatile elements of the index.
You'd have to love your true love a lot to give her/him the 12 days of Christmas gifts this year. You'd probably have to make a loan, and who would lend you money for that these days?
For a humorous take on the 12 gifts from a true love, go listen here.
Pictures from ClipArt
Feh. Mom gave me the twelve balls of Christmas a number of years ago. They're as good as they always were, and they didn't cost me a penny.
ReplyDelete:P
String popcorn and cranberries, and remember to put the tree outside for the birds when you're done with it.
:)
(Are we having fun yet?)
Twelve balls! I'm glad they were free and that they're still good, Scott. I don't know about you, but I'm having fun.
ReplyDeleteMy tree will not go for the birds. You'll know why when I post a picture later this month.
Well, of course, by law only the Queen may eat swans. It is otherwise a criminal offence.
ReplyDeleteAnd does she, DP?
ReplyDeleteApparently not, Grandmere. I believe such legislation goes back to the reign of Henry VIII (that devout Anglican!) but been has not been applied much since!
ReplyDeleteIt does remind me of the Bishop of Bath and Wells who ordained me in 1986. John Bickersteth, a renowned huntin', shotin', fishin' cleric who was handling a 12 gauge in his study one day when it fired out of the Palace window, peppering a swan in the moat with buckshot. The bird did survive, but the tabloids cried attempted murder!
RR, I thought Henry was a devout Catholic. Wasn't that his claim?
ReplyDeleteBishop Bickersteth? Are you sure you didn't make him up? The bishop and the gun story would fit neatly into a Trollope tale.
LOL! I couldn't make up such a story if I tried! John Bickersteth was my (wonderful) bishop in those days. He was actually a great pastor and preacher, and would say to his newly-ordained clergy, "You don't need an appointment, as my door is always open to you." And it was, as I can testify on two occasions in my doubt-filled curacy.
ReplyDeleteOnly his gun handling was in doubt!
I love hearing the cost of the 12 days of Christmas every year.
ReplyDeleteRR, so the bishop was real. That was a very good thing for his doubt-filled curates, surely.
ReplyDeleteRuth, thanks.