Did you ever listen to “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and think to yourself, “Man, that person’s true love must be loaded”? While you’re not sure what the going rate is for lords a-leaping, you’re pretty sure it’s not cheap — to say nothing of the insurance fees on five golden rings or the cost of birdseed for the turtle doves, French hens, geese a-laying and the partridge in the pear tree.
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Well, I listened to that song recently and, like Carrie Bradshaw, I couldn’t help but wonder: If I were the lucky gift-receiver in the song, how much would all those extravagant gifts from my “true love” cost in today’s money? This kind of research could easily take all day, so to expedite matters, I turned to my own holiday helper, ChatGPT, for answers.
Introducing the PNC Bank Christmas Price Index
Like any good holiday caroler clearing their throat, ChatGPT warmed up by explaining that the total cost would depend on whether I counted just one of each gift “or every gift given over all 12 days (because the song repeats).” OK, good point — but it also gave me a case of the holiday vapors, because I do not have enough room in my house for all those maids a-milking.
ChatGPT said it used the most recent PNC Bank Christmas Price Index for 2025 as a source for its prices. While it didn’t explain the index in detail, I did some online sleuthing and found that each year, PNC Bank calculates the current cost for one set of each gift given by the aforementioned true love in the song.
While it’s all in good holiday fun, PNC Bank says it modeled its own list to mirror the U.S. Consumer Price Index. According to the bank’s website, “It is similar to the U.S. Consumer Price Index … a fun way to measure consumer spending and trends in the economy.”
This is the real gift of ChatGPT: While it can provide answers quickly, it can also guide you to other interesting and creative sources of information.
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How Much Did My True Love Spend on Me?
Knowing that I wanted to gauge just how well my true love was treating me this season, ChatGPT informed me that if they gave me one of each gift, “The total cost for a single run of the 12 gifts (one partridge in a pear tree, two turtle doves, etc.) is ≈ US $51,476.12 in 2025.”
However, if my true love gave me every gift as the song repeats — as in, 364 gifts total — the total cost would be roughly $218,542.98 this year.
Aw, honey, you shouldn’t have.
The Yuletide Breakdown
Since I wanted to understand how that larger sum adds up — and stay closer to the spirit of the song — ChatGPT distilled the PNC Christmas Price Index into a digestible list.
First, it shared a breakdown of purchasing the gifts in the song one time — as in, a one-time purchase of two turtle doves.
- Partridge in a pear tree: $420.18
- Two turtle doves: $750
- Three French hens: $346.50
- Four calling birds: $599.96
- Five gold rings: $1,649.90
- Six geese-a-laying: $930
- Seven swans-a-swimming: $13,125
- Eight maids-a-milking: $58
- Nine ladies dancing: $8,856.88
- Ten lords-a-leaping: $16,836.14
- Eleven pipers piping: $3,797.48
- Twelve drummers drumming: $4,106.08
“Then if you carried out the full cumulative ‘song gifts’ (i.e. 1 + 3 + 6 + 10 … gifts) it hits that ~$218,500 mark,” ChatGPT wrote.
A General Summary of Costs
ChatGPT offered a few observations about some of the high-ticket items on my true love’s list — starting with the fact that swans are far more expensive than both “everyday” birds like hens and calling birds, as well as smaller items like the rings.
The lords, ladies, pipers and drummers also didn’t come cheap. These performers and domestic laborers comprise the bulk of the “labor and entertainment” cost.
The Bottom Line
While I’m not exactly sure where I’m going to plant the pear tree for my partridge or what drummers drumming prefer for breakfast, if there’s one thing I do know it’s that my true love has a serious chunk of change to throw around. I also know that ChatGPT can be a great source for synthesizing information quickly, and it can lead me to fascinating sources — and that may be the greatest gift of all.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: I Asked ChatGPT How Much ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ Would Cost in Today’s Money
