True Love is at it again this holiday season – and paying more than ever. The final price tag to buy all of the gifts in the song The Twelve Days of Christmas, comes to $51,476.12 this year, headlined by drastic increases in the price of gold and the famed partridge’s Pear Tree.
For more than 40 years, PNC has tracked the price of the birds, entertainers, and other gifts that comprise the classic holiday song as part of its Christmas Price Index (CPI). PNC’s CPI is a light-hearted take on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index. Fulfilling True Love’s shopping list will cost 4.5% more in 2025 than it did in 2024, outpacing the BLS index, which rose 3% from October 2024 to October 2025.
“This year’s index reflects the pressures from a tight labor market and lingering global economic uncertainties,” said Amanda Agati, chief investment officer of PNC’s Asset Management Group. “Despite what many may presume, tariffs are not a driver at all in the big year-over-year increases we are seeing in the PNC CPI. Why? Because True Love’s shopping list only includes domestically produced goods and services.”
Highlights from this year’s index:
- The Gold standard
For two years the price of The Five Gold Rings stayed flat in PNC’s index, but that brief run of stability is over. The rings jumped by 32.5% – the biggest increase in the CPI this year. That’s an actual annual price increase of more than $400, reflecting a surge in gold prices overall. Inflation, expected Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, and a declining U.S. dollar have pushed investors to gold and other precious metals in 2025.
Overall, just more than half of the gifts in the CPI rose in price in 2025. Aside from gold, the biggest movers were the Partridge and the Pear Tree, and the Ten Lords-a-Leaping. For the former, the overall 13.5% increase in price is entirely attributable to an increase in the price of the Pear Tree. The tree reflects increases in the price of labor, land, and fertilizer and also serves as a proxy for U.S. housing costs, which continue to rise despite mortgage rates trending lower.
The Ten Lords-a-Leaping have consistently grown in price over the life of the index – aside from the 2020 pandemic restrictions on live entertainment. The lords remained the highest priced overall gift in the index at $15,579.65 and are a reflection of the growing cost of performers. The four entertainment-related gifts all increased in price in 2025, with the aggregate price of performers increasing by 5.4% this year.
- Status quo for birds
While gold and the entertainment industry gifts jumped in price this year, most of the avian line items on True Love’s list stayed flat. Aside from the Six Geese-a-Laying, which rose by 3.3% this season, the other four gifts consisting entirely of birds cost the same as they did in 2024. Even the partridge – when factored individually –cost the same as last year, only raising in price when factoring in its accompanying tree.
Historically, the bird gifts are some of the most consistently priced in the CPI, with both the Four Calling Birds and the Seven Swans-a-Swimming remaining unchanged in price for more than a decade. The Swans – long the most expensive gift in the index – are priced at less than a $5 increase from where they debuted in 1984. Despite their consistency, their elevated total price of $13,125, has historically inflated the index, leading to a “core index” measurement, which measures growth in the CPI independent of the Swans. This year that core index grew by 6.1%.
- Online shopping relief
Trekking from store to store for all of the birds, performers, and goods in PNC’s CPI can be cumbersome, but it’s ultimately cheaper than fulfilling True Love’s list online. It’ll cost you $55,748.05 to buy the gifts online this year – shipping and packaging for all of those birds is expensive.
- Getting technical
If you’ve ever heard or sung The Twelve Days of Christmas, you know the verses repeat after each new gift is introduced. If you’re feeling traditional and wanted to buy all the gifts as the verses repeat, you’ll pay the “True Cost of Christmas,” which is $218,542.98 in 2025.
Aside from the pandemic-influenced 2020 cycle, the CPI hasn’t dropped year over year since 2002, when it dropped more than 10% from 2001 on the backs of lower prices for the Partridge and the Swans. Whether True Love will find any shopping relief in 2026 will be determined by the economy and Fed policy in the year ahead.
“With the Fed’s recent focus on looser monetary policy, it will be very interesting to see where the Christmas Price Index shakes out in 2026,” says Agati. “Will we finally get the gift of substantially lower inflation, or will still-elevated inflation be the proverbial lump of coal in shoppers’ and investors’ stockings? It all depends on whether the purple haze of policy uncertainty dissipates in the new year.”
PNC’s Christmas Price Index is now in its 42nd year. Launched in 1984 as a fun holiday-themed item for a newsletter, it has grown to an annual exercise, which is featured in national, local, and industry media. Visit the PNC Christmas Price Index website for more information and interactive charts.
