Etc.

'And a partridge in a pear tree' for a combined $165

If you suspected prices have gone up this Christmas shopping season, PNC Wealth Management, a Pittsburgh-based financial services company, can confirm your suspicions by citing a familiar carol.

Since 1984, it has used the objects in "The Twelve Days of Christmas" to calculate its Christmas Price Index – factoring in everything from the cost of a single partridge to the going rate (per performance) for a dozen drummers. While most of the items have risen in price over the past year, a few others have held the line.

The shopping list as laid out in the carol, with the percentage of increase since 2006, and the estimated 2007 cost of each item:

• Partridge (0.0%) $15
• Pear tree (+15.4%) $150
• Two turtle doves (0.0%) $40
• Three French hens (0.0%) $45
• Four calling birds/canaries (+25%) $600
• Five gold rings (+21.5%) $395
• Six geese a-laying (+20%) $360
• Seven swans a-swimmming(0.0%)$4,200
• Eight maids a-milking (+13.6%) $47
• Nine ladies dancing, per performance (0.0%) $4,759
• 10 lords a-leaping, per performance (+3.0%) $4,285
• 11 pipers piping, per performance (+4.2%) $2,213
• 12 drummers drumming, per performance (+4.2%) $2,398