Every year economists from PNC bank calculate what "The 12 Days of Christmas" would actually cost, including the expense of 12 drummers drumming, 11 pipers pipers piping, etc. Derek Thompson does the math on this year's record tally of $101,119.84:

First, Americans haven't received any swan relief recently, and the price of the birds has doubled again. Second, PNC uses a local Philadelphia dance company to estimate the price of "nine ladies dancing," and that index has grown by nearly 50 percent this decade (and more than 300 percent overall in the last 30 years!). In fact, this highlights perhaps the biggest real-world lesson of the survey, which is that over the last 28 years, the price of services has increased much faster than the price of goods.