Tis the (Pricey) Season
Each holiday season, PNC does something entirely practical — by pricing out the ridiculous. The PNC Christmas Price Index tallies up what it would cost today to buy the gifts from “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” In 2025, that cost has climbed to $51,476.12 — up 4.5% from last year. Talk about true love!
(You can see the whole listing of all of the items here!)
Why should you care — beyond the chuckle at the idea of sending ten lords-a-leaping to Aunt Edna? Because the rise in the cost of a fictional Christmas does translate to real world costs. The PNC CPI, whimsical as it is, often tracks broader economic trends measured by the standard Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Over the past decade, U.S. inflation has waxed and waned. After a few years of modest price increases, inflation surged sharply in 2021–2022 — then gradually cooled. By 2025, year-over-year inflation is hovering around 3.0%.
Yet even as headline inflation slows, some costs — especially for labor-intensive items or anything involving gold — continue rapidly increasing. That helps explain why in 2025 elements of the PNC Christmas gift list — like the partridge-in-a-pear-tree (+13.5%) or five gold rings (+32.5%) — saw outsized jumps.
What It Means for You — and Your Holiday Budget
- The PNC CPI confirms what many of us already feel: even modest aggregate inflation can mask sharp price jumps in specific goods and services.
- As we plan for year-end expenses — gifts, travel, entertainment — it’s smart to anticipate continued mismatched inflation: the costs of some things like jewelry, travel, or custom gifts will likely rise faster than the overall CPI rate of 3%.
- For investors and savers, this reinforces a familiar truth: inflation matters. It erodes purchasing power, and calls for careful planning — whether that means building inflation buffers, revisiting your budget, or adjusting portfolios toward assets that historically hedge inflation.
So–while the cost of a pear tree and a gold ring might seem rather silly–the PNC Christmas Price Index offers a fun reminder: inflation isn’t just a dry economic concept. It can hit even the most whimsical corners of our lives — and it pays to plan accordingly.
We certainly noticed the rise in food and service prices on a quick family trip to DC for dinner! Still worth the trip for the memories! 😊