Etiquette and New Trends

Prepare to pay up to insure 12 Days of Christmas

By Ben Berkowitz (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-25 07:45

NEW YORK - Everyone knows it would be prohibitively expensive to gift someone the treasures from the 12 Days of Christmas, but it would be even more pricey to insure - nearly 20 times the cost of buying the presents from the famed holiday carol.

A recipient of turtle doves, partridges and leaping lords would end up paying nearly half a million dollars in insurance premiums, according to a study from insurance brokerage Lockton and trade magazine Insurance Journal.

In the scenario examined by Lockton, the recipient of the gifts opens a farm with the animals and plants, a performance space with the dancing ladies and drumming drummers and a gift shop to sell eggs from the laying geese.

As a result, Lockton suggested, she would need a whole range of policies including livestock mortality, equipment breakdown, inland cargo, workers' compensation and a special policy for all the golden rings.

All totaled, the lucky recipient of the holiday largess would pay premiums of just under $465,000 for her coverage, according to the certified property and casualty underwriter who prepared the report.

PNC Financial Services Group, which has prepared a Christmas price index every year since 1984, has said it would cost $23,439.38 for the full set of gifts this year. That was up 9.2 percent on 2009.

The lucky gift-getter may want to consult Santa Claus for some advice on the best way to insure her haul. Famed insurance market Lloyd's of London "announced" this week that it had written the first policy to protect Kris Kringle.

Citing "Santa's helpers", the story on the Lloyd's website said the personal accident policy covers him for accident, illness, emergency evacuations - and, of course, legal indemnification in case he is sued for not gifting the naughty.

Reuters