Christmas trees and buying cars

You might not think that purchasing a Christmas tree has much to do with buying a car, but, I'm telling you, they are more similar than you might think.

True, my Christmas tree that I bought today cost $40. The average price of a new car is between $25,000 and $30,000.

But what I have found is that you approach the purchases the same way - wanting to get the best possible product, and spending some time to get it. Buying a car takes research - test driving, comparing prices, maybe even going to Consumer Reports to see their recommendations.

Buying a tree involves a lot of observing, picturing these trees in your house. Will they be too wide, too tall? What about that gaping hole in the back? Some needles might be dying already. The tree could be growing crookedly.

And then, after a lot of wandering around a tree farm in the cold - equivalent to weeks of visiting car dealers and tolerating their salesmen - you grow tired of the process. It gets late, you grow irritable, and then you end up cutting down a tree that you walked by four times. But now, you're impatient about the whole thing, and the tree suddenly looks good. If you had chopped it down in the first place, you could have saved an hour of your December afternoon.

Same thing happens with buying cars. You start off very excited about the prospect of a new car. But after weeks of searching for the right car at the right price, you're pretty satisfied with your old car.

I guess it's this way with any purchase. Or maybe some people can actually make up their minds relatively quickly and move on.