Clark Howard

Why you shouldn't buy your Christmas tree this weekend

The Thanksgiving holiday is upon us and this long weekend is one that millions of Americans use to select and purchase their Christmas trees.

But what if we told you that might be a big mistake when it comes to the impact on your wallet?

According to the National Christmas Tree Association, 27.4 million real Christmas trees were purchased in 2017 at an average cost of $75, along with 21.1 million new fake trees at an average cost of $107.

But here’s where it gets interesting!

According to a recent survey that the National Christmas Tree Association did with payment processing servicer Square, the period between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is actually one of the most expensive times of the season to purchase a tree, with Black Friday itself being the most expensive day, an average, to bring one home.

See for yourself in this handy graph:

As you can glean from the graph, prices start to drop a few days after Cyber Monday and really start getting more reasonable by the day after the first week in December, culminating with the biggest deals on Christmas Eve.

So, if you can bear to wait just a bit to buy your tree, you’ll end up with more money in your pocket to put presents underneath it!

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