Santa’s milk and cookies are costing more moola.
Inflation is everywhere, and time-honored traditions don’t get a pass.
But just how much does it cost to offer Santa and his reindeer their milk, cookies and carrots (you need nine, remember)?
More: 15 restaurants open on Christmas Eve, Christmas at the Jersey Shore
The team at FinanceBuzz decided to find out.
Cookies and milk for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer left on the table in front of a burning fire and lit Christmas tree.
The finance website’s research team tracked ingredient costs for a batch of frosted sugar cookies, a glass of milk and carrots to discover how much inflation has hit the snack since 2020.
Cost of cookies, milk and carrots
The team picked a top-rated sugar cookie recipe from Allrecipes.com and used the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Consumer Price Index data to calculate the cost of each individual ingredient in the recipe, including butter, sugar and flour. It included prices for other items like baking powder from popular grocery stores and used data on carrots from the USDA.
What did it find?
More: What’s New Jersey’s most popular Christmas cookie? Wordsmiths weigh in
This year, it costs about $8.44 to leave out a batch of cookies, a glass of milk and a pound of carrots for Santa and his team of nine reindeer.
Christmas inflation
The study found that in 2020, the cost for Santa and the reindeers’ snack cost a little more than $6.50.
In 2021, the cost went down a smidge, before jumping to about $8.50 in 2022. It was a little over $8.40 in both 2024 and 2025.
The site says that although many of the ingredient costs went up from 2024 to 2025, a decline in egg prices kept overall costs mostly stable.
Between 2020 and 2025, the increase amounts to 31%, outpacing the national inflation rate of 25%.
Of the ingredients, the price of eggs has increased about 136% since 2020, although it’s fallen since last year. Salt increased 73%, and both sugar and butter are up 35%.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Cost of cookies and milk for Santa increases in 2025
Source link
