The Christmas Price Index 

Yes... the lesser known CPI. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had an interesting story this morning:

Maids-a-milking, gold rings and turtledoves were a relative bargain this year, but anyone who shopped for French hens, geese and ladies dancing may have been in for a touch of sticker shock.
...
So said PNC Advisors, the wealth management firm that each year tallies the putative cost of assembling all the items from the classic song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

This year, purchasing all those goods and services would have set you back $66,334, about the cost of a fully loaded sports utility vehicle.

They go on to detail the cost increase or decrease for the 12 items in the famous song, if you were to purchase those items in the United States. Maids-a-milking for instance has gone from $26.80 to around $41.20 in 20 years. My question is... where are you finding maids who still milk cows? Isn't the milking process completely automated everywhere here? Nine ladies dancing apparently will run you around $44,000. Now I'd imagine here there is actually quite a range in price for those dancing women. Are we talking ballet dancers, or dancers of a more exotic nature? I suppose it wouldn't be pole dancers... very few would refer to them as ladies (which is quite a shame).

Nick - Do you always have to make a joke out of everything? No, but what do you expect when you find out that a financial company has done this seriously every single year since 1984. It's a song!