The Laboratory

A few random things to fit in on the penultimate day: As usual, the Swedish Royal family have a much better Christmas than ours. Princess Estelle, Prince Oscar, and their parents Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel are going behind the scenes of the ballet Cinderella, and charming us with their brilliant family dynamic. === Every year people work out the "Twelve Days of Christmas" inflation index , looking at the total cost of all the gifts mentioned on the 12th day. This year it has gone up by 10.5%. Even the Three Kings would have been hit by 2022's record inflation. Their gifts of gold, incense and myrrh have kept their value in the commodity markets, reports Waitrose. Gold is around £1500 an ounce, up 40% on last year, and is used in phone technology as well as for jewellry. Incense costs £300 a kilo, harvested from the sap of the boswellia tree. And myrrh, from thorny commiphora trees, is £400 a kilo. === If you were horrified by the M&S Panettonut, or by C...

First day of the holidays today, so apologies to the 45 of you who tried to look at this page too early in the day. I'll have lots more time to upload them promptly now! Every year the Christmas Price Index calculates the total cost of all of the gifts from the song "The Twelve Days Of Christmas" (fact fans will know that if you gave the gifts every day they were mentioned, you'd have 12 + 22 + 30 + ... + 12 = 364 gifts, one for every day of the year apart from Christmas Day!) And this year the index is up 3.5%. This is quite high, mainly because the cost of swans (one of the most expensive item) is up!

9.2% That's the headline figure in this year's Christmas Price Index . Yes, once again those wacky economists at PNC have worked out how expensive all the presents in the 12 Days of Christmas would be, and prices are up! It's the highest increase since 2003, and we can blame it on ... turtle doves, up from $56 to $100, and french hens, up over 200%. Musicians and the gentry are not at fault. Check out the site , as it has gone all musical and interactive this year, and is great for children!