Holiday joy — at a price

Pack an extra $200 to buy presents in classic song

Twelve days of Christmas aren’t as cheap as they used to be.

Buying gifts for your “true love” this year will cost an extra $200, according to the PNC Christmas Price Index.

That is, if you stick to the unique gifts in the classic holiday song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

The 34th annual PNC Christmas Price Index calculates the 2017 price tag for the individual gifts at $34,559, a 0.6 percent increase over $34,364 in 2016, when shopping at traditional retailers. Shopping for those same gifts online rose 1.1 percent to $45,096.

That’s $10,538 more than in-store purchases — for the convenience of online shopping this year. That’s due to travel and shipping costs of the gifts, explains PNC, which has 73 bank branches in South Florida.

The first item on the list, “a partridge in a pear tree,” increased 4.7 percent over last year due to more costly pear trees, increased costof-living for workers, and limited supply of more mature trees, PNC says.

But the biggest growth rate in this year’s index was the cost of “five gold rings,” which jumped 10 percent due to increased demand and popularity. Prices had remained steady at $750 during the last five years.

And, despite wages rising modestly and a tight job market, “10 lords-a-leaping” saw an increase, as prices jumped 2 percent to $5,619, after two years of stagnant growth, PNC said.

Still, the gift prices overall rose less than the government’s Consumer Price Index, which increased 2.2 percent through September for the past 12 months, the Pittsburgh-based financial institution points out.

“The U.S. economy is growing at a sustainable pace, fueled by higher consumer confidence, low unemployment, modest wage gains, and low interest rates,” said Thomas P. Melcher, chief investment officer for PNC Asset Management Group. He said the small increase in prices in the 2017 index reflects retailers being “hesitant to pass through price increases to the consumer.”

After all, traditional retailers have had a tough year with major brands including Macy’s, Sears, J.C. Penney and, most recently, Target, announcing store closings nationally. They don’t want to scare away consumers at the biggest shopping time of the year. Several retailers forecast a favorable holiday shopping season.

And watch out, consumers, when buying gifts for your true love: While Americans say they plan to spend an average of $660, about the same as last year, they also are likely to rack up debt to do it, according to a separate survey by NerdWallet. Fifty-six percent of those who shopped during the 2016 holiday season incurred credit card debt versus 48 percent a year earlier.

For the entire “12 Days of Christmas” index, go to pnc.com/Christmas PriceIndex. The website also provides a downloadable coloring book to help students to learn about the stock market, inflation and economic trends.

PNC/COURTESY The cost of “five gold rings” jumped 10 percent.