ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

The Twelve Days of Christmas (How Much Would it Cost)

Updated on November 28, 2008

How much Would it Cost?

The Twelve Days of Christmas

We all know the famous Christmas love song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, Where the Beau tries to win the heart of his sweetheart, by presenting her with different gifts for each of the twelve festive days.

I have often thought that this guy must be missing a brain cell or two, or that he had so much money that he could afford such frivolity.

Then another thought came to me, if I were to do the same thing for my wife this year and present her with the same twelve gifts, how much money would it actually cost to pull off this romantic stunt. After some research on the Internet I have came up with two totals one for the real thing and the other for jewellery or ornaments representing the famous gifts.

The Ornamental Gifts

Click thumbnail to view full-size
Partridge in a Pear Tree Two Turtle doves.Three French Hens
Partridge in a Pear Tree
Partridge in a Pear Tree
Two Turtle doves.
Two Turtle doves.
Three French Hens
Three French Hens

The Twelve Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree.

I found a Partridge in a Pear Tree Ornament online at a very good price,

$7.50 was a snip (picture).

I could buy a live partridge online for $25.00 and a live pear tree for around $15.00

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me Two Turtle doves.

I found a single turtledove ornament (pictured) online for $8.00 I wanted two so that came to a total of $16.00.

Finding live turtle doves was quite an easy task online and a pair of them worked out at the exact same price as the ornamental birds $16.00 the pair.

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me Three French Hens

The three French hens ornament (pictured) was a snip at $20.00 and after a little searching I eventually found three live French hens on sale at a reasonable $45.00.

Ornamental Gifts

Click thumbnail to view full-size
Four Colly Birds5 gold ringssix geese a laying
Four Colly Birds
Four Colly Birds
5 gold rings
5 gold rings
six geese a laying
six geese a laying

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Four Calling Birds

The original lyrics of the song actually read "Four Colly birds" Colly means black therefore four black birds is what I looked for.

The one pictured would cost $5.00 meaning it would cost $20.00 for four of them.

I couldn't find anywhere that sold live blackbirds online but you could try to lure them into your home with some bird seeds or even some bread.

cost $1.00.

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Five Gold Rings

Pay a visit to any Dollar store and you will be able to get your hands on five plastic gold covered rings (pictured), the usually come in packs of between five and ten. Cost $1.00

Sticking to a budget you could opt for nine carat gold rings, which you can pick up for as little as $25.00 each 5 would total $125.00

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Six Geese a Laying.

This proved to be the most difficult ornament to find and I couldn't find one that was cheaper than this at $500.00 you would need to have more money than sense to buy it.

I found some geese online (Chinese Exhibition Geese) at $80.00 a head the total came to $ 480.00

Ornamental Gifts

Click thumbnail to view full-size
Seven Swans a SwimmingEight Maids a milking.Nine ladies Dancing
Seven Swans a Swimming
Seven Swans a Swimming
Eight Maids a milking.
Eight Maids a milking.
Nine ladies Dancing
Nine ladies Dancing

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me Seven Swans a Swimming

I found this plate online (pictured) that depicts seven swans a swimming it is on sale at the moment reduced from $38.00 to $18.00.

Where I live in the UK it is illegal to own a swan they are a protected species and can only be owned by the Queen.

If the law is different where you live perhaps you could find a price and post it in the comments box below.

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Eight Maids a milking.

Unfortunately I couldn't find an ornament for eight maids a milking but I found the Christmas card pictured, priced at $2.00.

In Europe it is illegal to milk a cow by hand these days, I am not sure if it is the same in the USA , for the purpose of the song though you would need to buy

Eight milking machines at a total price of $3200 and hire eight Maids separately at $ 15.00 an hour each for one hour the total would be $120.00

Total for machines and maids would be $3320.00

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Nine ladies Dancing

I found these Christmas lights on line that represent Nine Ladies Dancing at $120.00 they would make an ideal decoration for any home.

From lap dancers to ballroom dancers you would be able to find a dance troupe willing to help you out in your quest for a small fee of course. Expect it to cost around $5000.00

Ornamental Gifts

Click thumbnail to view full-size
Ten Lords a LeapingEleven Pipers PipingTwelve Drummers Drumming
Ten Lords a Leaping
Ten Lords a Leaping
Eleven Pipers Piping
Eleven Pipers Piping
Twelve Drummers Drumming
Twelve Drummers Drumming

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Ten Lords a Leaping.

If you like the plate pictured right you can buy it online for only $60.00 but I am afraid you will have to shell out a little bit more to hire ten real lords of the realm.

Although a lord of the realm may be worth millions they still like to make a little money on the side by making after dinner speeches, the going rate for this service is $20,000 if you hire ten after dinner speeches from ten different lords maybe, just maybe you could get them drunk and have them leaping all over the room, at $200,000 you deserve to get what you paid for.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my truelove gave to me Eleven Pipers Piping.

The eleven pipers plate pictured would cost $27.00 to buy online

To hire a eleven pipers whether they are flutists or bagpipers would cost you around $200.00 each total cost $2200.00.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Twelve Drummers Drumming

The Christmas lights of twelve drummers would cost you in the region of $300.00.

Drummers are plentiful in the real world and you could easily hire one for $50.00 a night multiply that by 12 and your twelve drummers would cost $600.00.

Gifts total cost

ORNAMENTAL GIFTS COST $1115.50

REAL LIVE GIFTS COST $211,792.00

And there we have it ornamental presents would be the best way to go if I was planning the gifts for my wife but even then I would be stretching my budget well over the limit.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)