Can Anyone Really Afford Nine Ladies Dancing?

Can anyone actually afford nine ladies dancing? Just thought I would ask, just in case you are planning to celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas.

I did a little research and discovered that the 12 days of Christmas don't start until Christmas Day and conclude on January 6th with the Feast of the Epiphany. All these years I have been celebrating the 12 days of Christmas on the wrong days, with the widely  held belief that the 12 Days of Christmas lead up to Christmas Day.

The idea of the 12 Days of Christmas is to give one give on day one, two gifts on day 2, etc., etc. However, as  you can imagine, that gets quite expensive if you are buying the gifts in the song. According to newsobserver.com, the actual cost of all the gifts in the song for 2013 is $114, 651.18. The costliest item on the list? Surprisingly, it's not the five gold rings, but rather the nine  ladies dancing, which will set you back more than $7500.

I don't know about you, but $7500 is  way out of my price range, so I'm scratching the nine ladies dancing off my list. Besides, I don't even know where we would put nine ladies dancing. I'm hoping my "true love" won't be too disappointed. As for the other items in the song, I might be able to afford two French hens. Of course, with my luck there would be a mix up and I would end up with two French horns instead.

Just for fun, I wanted to share with you my favorite version of The 12 Days of Christmas, performed here by Mitch Miller and the gang.