Twelve Days of Christmas | Important Update

[By Ellen Vahan, posted by Chuck Almdale]

Twelve Days of Christmas Redux

It would seem that True Love and PNC Christmas Price Index were on hiatus last year (the cursed 2020). There was no Twelve Days of Christmas Index pricing all the gifts that one might accumulate from True Love. However….we are back in business and we have prices.

For those who have no idea what I am blathering about….Twelve Days of Christmas is a carol sung at Christmas time and at ALL school Christmas events. The twelve days start at Christmas and continue until January 5th the day before Epiphany. Each day “My True Love” gives a gift and adds to the ones from the days before, so day one = one gift and up to day twelve when there are gifts from all previous days (12 from the 12th and 11 from the 11th and so on which adds up to a lot of livestock, fowl and people). The index just adds up the cost of the 12th day (one batch of everything).

So….

• 1 Partridge in a pear tree $222.68 up 6.0% from 2019 – cost of the tree
• 2 Turtle Doves $450.00 up 50% (yikes)
• 3 French Hens $255.00 up 40.5%
• 4 Calling Birds $599.96 no change
• 5 Gold Rings $895.00 up 8.5%
• 6 Geese-A-Laying $660.00 up 57.1% (wow!)
• 7 Swans-A-Swimming $13,125.00 no change, but still most expensive gift  
• 8 Maid-A-Milking $58.00 no change – this is Federal Minimum Wage and apparently no extra charge for cows
• 9 Ladies Dancing $7,552.84 no change from 2019 – rate for Pittsburgh ballet
• 10 Lords-A-Leaping $11,260.00 up 12.6% from 2019 and able to perform
• 11 Pipers Piping $2,943.93 up 7.1% as live performances are happening
• 12 Drummers Drumming $3,183.17 up 7.1% 

This totals to $41,205.58, up 5.7% from 2019.
And should you count all the repetitions totaling 364 gifts, the cost would be $179,454.19.
The original Index in 1984 totaled $20,069.58.

PNC Bancorp Inc. in Pittsburgh, PA has kept this going for 37 years (38 if you include the gap for 2020). For this I thank them.

Merry Christmas to all
EV

Auditor’s opinion on the above Statement of Expenditures

We have audited the accompanying Statement of Expenditures of True Love and PNC Bancorp Inc. of Pittsburgh, PA as of December 25, 2021. This financial statement is the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit.

In our opinion, the above statement of expenditures presents fairly, in all material respects, the proposed expenditures in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.

We conducted our audit in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.

In our opinion, the financial statement referred to above, presents fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of True Love and PNC Bancorp Inc. of Pittsburgh, PA as of December 25, 2021, and the results of its expenditures for the year then ended in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

Scrooge, Marley and Cratchit, LLC.
Certifiable Public Accountants
B.S. Barnum, lead auditor