Want a gift to please your honey this holiday season and save some bucks, too?
Consider five golden rings, the fifth gift in the classic holiday song "The Twelve Days of Christmas."
The set should run you $255, down nearly 30 percent from $361 last year, according to PNC Advisors' annual cost of Christmas index. That represents the second-biggest drop among the 12 gifts in the song.
Bargain hunters take note -- the biggest percentage decline was in the price of two turtle doves, which skidded 31 percent, to $40 from $58. Presenting your loved one with a pair of relatives from the pigeon family may not be the smartest move, however.
For those inclined to splurge, the price of all the gifts in the song, from a partridge in a pear tree to 12 drummers drumming, rose to $17,297. That was up 2.4 percent, but far less than the 16 percent jump recorded last year.
Buying all the items as many times as they are repeated in the song should set you back $66,334 this year, up 1.6 percent. Last year, the package price zoomed 19 percent.
PNC attributed the smaller price hikes to lower consumer confidence.