Have you ever considered giving your "true love" everything offered in the traditional timeless song, Twelve Days of Christmas? If so, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. has done their homework on the cost. They claim this year these gifts will run you $17,279.

Each year, the Pittsburgh-based bank does a tongue-in-cheek tally of how much the drummers drumming, pipers piping, turtle doves and golden rings would set you back if you bought them for your true love at today's prices.

The bank began publishing the list in 1982 for institutional clients and released it publicly the next year.

So what are all the gifts going for this year?

If they were bought repeatedly on each day as the song suggests, they'd hit $66,334, up from $65,264 last year.

The nine ladies dancing would leave the largest dent in your wallet this year - coming in at $4,400.

The eight maids-a-milking are a bargain at $41.20.

"As a result, the cost of skilled dancers has steadily increased, while the unskilled milk maids haven't managed an increase in pay for many years," said Jeff Kleintop, chief investment strategist for PNC Advisors.

The prices for the birds - swans, geese, canaries (calling birds), hens, doves and partridges - didn't change much from last year, coming in at $4,201 compared with $4,138, according to the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens.

But with the declining dollar, you would have saved buying the three French hens last year, when they were $15, compared with $45 this year.

Twelve Days of Christmas Alternatives Gifts

For the same $17,279, Forbes Magazine claims you could buy a Mini Cooper, or a ride in a Russian MiG jet fighter, or a 10-acre ranch in Colorado or a 1920s baseball signed by Babe Ruth.

Rugged Elegance Recommendations

For our 2004 Twelve Days of Christmas gift selections, go to:

Inspire & Be Inspired (R).

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful and "true love" living!

~ Jennifer Carolyn King