Don't tell us you're still scrambling - on Christmas Day - to find just the right gift for your beloved?

Well, if (inexplicably) you are and your true love asked (even more inexplicably) for a partridge in a pear tree, expect to shell out $161.99, according to PNC Wealth Management, which has measured changes in the price of the gifts in the famous "12 Days of Christmas" carol since 1984.

Buying all 364 items, as the song's lyrics repeatedly suggest, will cost $96,824.

And to purchase one of everything, from the five gold rings to the 10 leaping lords, will cost more than $23,400 this year, a 9.2 percent increase from 2009.

Just 25 years ago you could purchase the whole lot for just over $12,800.

Here's a 25-year cost comparison:

(Cost in 1985/in 2010)

• One partridge in a pear tree: $31.52/$161.99

• Two turtle doves: $47.73/$100

• Three French hens: $15.23/$150

• Four calling birds: $280/$599.96

• Five gold rings: $325/$649.95

• Six geese a-laying: $150/$150

• Seven swans a-swimming: $5,600/$7,000

• Eight maids-a-milking: $26.80/$58

• Nine ladies dancing: $1,557/$6,294.03

• 10 lords a-leaping: $1,730/$4,766.70

• 11 pipers piping: $793.32/$2,356.20

• 12 drummers drumming: $859.43/$2,552.55

Source: PNC Wealth Management


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