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December 18, 2009

Strange But True!

Q. Looking for something really special for your true love this holiday season, you consider buying her all the items mentioned in the classic “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” But what might this cost? What do you discover?

A. Financially speaking, “You may take it on the chin for a peck on the cheek,” sums up Jim Dunigan of PNC Wealth Management, which tallied the costs ranging from the single partridge ($20) in a pear tree ($200) all the way to the 12 drummers drumming ($2,500 per performance), purchased REPEATEDLY over the 12 days as the song states. This last point is critical, for the first stanza specifies “On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me a partridge in a pear tree,” but that same partridge and tree are sent again at the end of every one of the 12 stanzas. On the second day, two turtle doves are sent, and then again 10 more times. That's 2 + 20 = 22 turtle doves. So instead of 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 = 78 items, the number balloons to 364 items altogether.


 
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