Cause for Holiday Cheer - The Cost of Four Calling Birds Unchanged in 2008

10 Lords a Leaping get a 3% increase while the cost of 9 Ladies Dancing remains unchanged. And the calling birds stay the same as well.

This year's "CPI" is the 24th annual Christmas Price Index put together by American financial services company PNC. The index tracks the cost of all the gifts mentioned in the traditional song, The Twelve Days of Christmas. Hand-wringers may find the rising cost of the pear tree and the seven swans yet another cause for worry, but the video in which a po-faced Jim Dunigan, PNC executive vice president, relates the facts and figures in his best accountant-speak, while animated figures leap and dance beside him, is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

• Check out the Christmas Price Index

_screenshot