My True Love Gave to Me . . . a $15,455 Bill

The five gold rings might be more of a bargain than last year, but the overall price tag for the slew of gifts in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” still rose slightly in 1991.

It would cost $15,455.79 to buy your “true love” everything on the list, from a partridge in a pear tree to 12 drummers drumming, according to J. Patrick Bradley, an economist who has been computing the cost since 1984.

This year’s cost was up $224.07 from last year, a 1.47% increase. That’s better that the government’s Consumer Price Index, which rose 2.9% from 1990, said Bradley, chief economist at Provident National Bank.

Bradley said his Christmas Price Index avoided a bigger jump because gold prices dropped 31.3% and because the gifts do not include any spending on health care or housing, the biggest contributors to the nation’s spiraling costs.

“This is certainly not an indicator of inflation,” Bradley said. “But even in bad times, people can look at this and get a good laugh out of it.”

Rising labor costs contributed the most to this year’s price jump, even for the eight maids a-milking, who get minimum wage for an hour, he said.

Here’s the complete list, with prices:

* A partridge in a pear tree, $27.50, up 2 cents.

* Two turtle doves, $50, unchanged.

* Three French hens, $15, unchanged.

* Four calling birds, $280, unchanged.

* Five gold rings, $412.50, down from $600.

* Six geese a-laying, $150, unchanged.

* Seven swans a-swimming, $7,000, unchanged.

* Eight maids a-milking, $34, up from $30.40.

* Nine ladies dancing, $2,555.72, up from $2,417.90.

* Ten lords a-leaping, $2,839.69, up from $2,686.56.

* Eleven pipers piping, $1,003.86, up from $947.70.

* Twelve drummers drumming, $1,087.52, up from $1,026.68.