Christmas Price Index chose the items in the popular Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" as its market basket: a partridge in a pear tree, two turtle doves, three French hens, four calling birds, five gold(en) rings, six geese, seven swans, eight maids, nine dancing ladies, ten leaping lords, eleven pipers, and twelve drummers. According to tradition, the purchasing of the items begins on December 26 and ends on January 6. PNC compiles both a "Christmas Price Index" and "The True Cost of Christmas." The "Christmas Price Index" is calculated by adding the cost of the items in the song. The "True
The Twelve Days of Christmas (song) Christmas". Its final verse, as published in de Coussemaker, "Chants Populaires des Flamands de France" (1856), runs as follows: According to de Coussemaker, the song was recorded "in the part of [French] Flanders that borders on the Pas de Calais". The exact origins and the meaning of the song are unknown, but it is highly probable that it originated from a children's memory and forfeit game. The twelve days in the song are the twelve days starting with Christmas Day, or in some traditions, the day after Christmas (26 December) (Boxing Day or St. Stephen's Day, as being the feast