According to the source, the index reflects the current cost for one set of each of the gifts given in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas". With a decrease of 21.7 percent over previous year, 1995 saw the greatest decline in cost for these gifts. After a significant increase in 2022, the inflation rate slowed slightly in 2023 with a total increase of 2.7 percent. The cost for the ten Lords-a-Leaping - the most expensive item in the index - was at 14,539 U.S. dollars in 2023.

In 2023, the most expensive gift from the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas," were the ten Lords-a-Leaping, amounting to 14,539 U.S. dollars. The Lords were followed closely by seven Swans-a-Swimming, the only other gift to exceed ten thousand U.S. dollars.

The Christmas Price Index has not been immune to the impacts of inflation in 2023, with the cost of five gold rings increasing by 13.9 percent, and two turtle doves by 25 percent.

A festive basket of goods Traditionally, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the United States measures the rate of inflation on a basket of goods as a way to document the general inflationary experience of all urban consumers. The Christmas Price Index has been used for decades to humorously measure the changing cost of a particular set of goods over time – in this case the items described in the popular holiday tune, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Overall inflation for the Christmas Price Index amounts to 2.7 percent.

Eight maids need a raise For the twelfth year in a row, the price of eight maids-a-milking has remained constant at 58 U.S. dollars. This is due to the fact that the federal minimum wage in the United States has been 7.25 U.S. dollars since 2009. The source categorizes maids-a-milking as unskilled laborers – meaning it would be appropriate to pay them the federal minimum wage for their troubles. The cost of ten Lords-a-leaping, however, is more than 241 times more expensive.

This statistic represents the energy costs of lighting a six-foot Christmas tree, lit 12 hours a day for 40 days, decorated with various light types. Americans choosing not to burn down their house during Christmas season should stay away from real candles anyway, and if they also prefer spending their money on Christmas presents instead of the Christmas tree decoration, LED lights are the best choice - decorating the tree with 280 LED lights for 40 days costs only 0.61 U.S. dollars.

“All of them!” most of us would probably say when asked what our favorite holiday is, but when given a choice, Americans favor Christmas over Thanksgiving and Halloween. Christmas is a civil holiday in the United States, and most Americans celebrate it regardless of their religious affiliation.

Shopping holiday

Christmas is an immense economic stimulus as well, and Americans are quite generous when it comes to spending money on Christmas gifts for their loved ones. Sales growth typically increases significantly during this season, and it took a painful hit during the 2008 recession – lucky for the economy, it has since recovered.

And a partridge in a Christmas tree

The most prominent accessory of Christmas festivities, the Christmas tree, is still a staple for Americans, with fake trees having risen in popularity over the years. Just like the allocated budget for presents, the amount Americans spend on trees, either real or fake, has increased significantly over the years. This is probably only partly due to generosity, and is more down to increasing prices, as shown in the Christmas Price Index, which shows the current cost for one set of each of the items mentioned in the Christmas song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. While it does not include Christmas trees, it’s a good indicator of consumer prices and inflation.

Dataset Description :

This is the historical data that covers sales from 2010-02-05 to 2012-11-01, in the file Walmart_Store_sales. Within this file you will find the following fields:

Store - the store number

Date - the week of sales

Weekly_Sales - sales for the given store

Holiday_Flag - whether the week is a special holiday week 1 – Holiday week 0 – Non-holiday week

Temperature - Temperature on the day of sale

Fuel_Price - Cost of fuel in the region

CPI – Prevailing consumer price index

Unemployment - Prevailing unemployment rate

Holiday Events Super Bowl: 12-Feb-10, 11-Feb-11, 10-Feb-12, 8-Feb-13 Labour Day: 10-Sep-10, 9-Sep-11, 7-Sep-12, 6-Sep-13 Thanksgiving: 26-Nov-10, 25-Nov-11, 23-Nov-12, 29-Nov-13 Christmas: 31-Dec-10, 30-Dec-11, 28-Dec-12, 27-Dec-13

Analysis Tasks

Basic Statistics tasks

1) Which store has maximum sales

2) Which store has maximum standard deviation i.e., the sales vary a lot. Also, find out the coefficient of mean to standard deviation

3) Which store/s has good quarterly growth rate in Q3’2012

4) Some holidays have a negative impact on sales. Find out holidays which have higher sales than the mean sales in non-holiday season for all stores together

5) Provide a monthly and semester view of sales in units and give insights

Statistical Model

For Store 1 – Build prediction models to forecast demand

Linear Regression – Utilize variables like date and restructure dates as 1 for 5 Feb 2010 (starting from the earliest date in order). Hypothesize if CPI, unemployment, and fuel price have any impact on sales.

Change dates into days by creating new variable.

Select the model which gives best accuracy.

This is the historical data that covers sales from 2010-02-05 to 2012-11-01.

Store - the store number Date - the week of sales Weekly_Sales - sales for the given store Holiday_Flag - whether the week is a special holiday week 1 – Holiday week 0 – Non-holiday week Temperature - Temperature on the day of sale Fuel_Price - Cost of fuel in the region CPI – Prevailing consumer price index Unemployment - Prevailing unemployment rate Holiday Events
Super Bowl: 12-Feb-10, 11-Feb-11, 10-Feb-12, 8-Feb-13
Labour Day: 10-Sep-10, 9-Sep-11, 7-Sep-12, 6-Sep-13
Thanksgiving: 26-Nov-10, 25-Nov-11, 23-Nov-12, 29-Nov-13
Christmas: 31-Dec-10, 30-Dec-11, 28-Dec-12, 27-Dec-13