Every time we watch Christmas Vacation, my wife talks about how, as a kid, they did the same thing minus the root ball. They went to the property they own over an hour away to cut a tree down instead of just going down the street to buy one. So they had the tree strapped to the top of the car. That hour drive back stripped all the needles off of one side of the tree. My wife said she was so embarrassed riding back, she couldn't look out the window of the car as people passed.
