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
All Hail to the Days (Drive the Cold Winter Away) "The English Dancing Master". The carol's lyrics discuss various seasonal festivities during Christmastide, which is directly mentioned in the verse "When Christmastide comes in like a bride…Twelve days in the year, much mirth and good cheer." During the Elizabethan era (from which the song originates), the majority of Christmas celebrations occurred during the Twelve Days of Christmas. Traditional Elizabethan Christmas festivities alluded to in the carol include wassailing, feasting, and theatre performances. Canadian folk artist Loreena McKennitt recorded the carol, titled "In Praise of Christmas", for her Christmas album "To Drive the Cold Winter Away" (1987). English folksinger Kate Rusby