Revealing mistake: When Snots the dog chases the squirrel into the Griswolds' dining room, he barely brushes a high-back dining chair that immediately falls on its side. If you look closely, a string attached to the the right side top of the chair can be seen tightening which then pulls the chair down.
Continuity mistake: In the scene of Clark standing in the snow trying to figure out why his Christmas lights did not work, the paper he is holding in his right hand is mid torso to him, but in the next shot when Rusty leaves him, his right hand has instantly dropped to his side and he raises his paper-holding hand again.
Continuity mistake: When Clark, Eddie, and Catherine are admiring the Christmas lights of the Griswold house, Clark is very close to Eddie with his left arm draped over Eddie's shoulder, but the next quick cut to Clark when he says, "Eddie?", shows Clark further away and his left arm at his side, and not stretched out.
Revealing mistake: The stunt double for Nicholas Guest is obvious after Julia-Louis Dreyfus punches him. The hair style of the stunt double is different from Nicholas Guest's hair, which is heavily slicked back.
Continuity mistake: In the Christmas dinner scene, closeups of Rocky show his right hand raised to his face, but the overhead shots do not.
Continuity mistake: When Todd, the snob neighbor, falls down the stairs, his wife Margot is not visible in the bedroom. (00:38:55)
Continuity mistake: After Clarke falls in the bush, the gutter repairs itself.
Factual error: Prior to the cat being electrocuted, Clark is seen plugging the lights into a 110 volt outlet. However, when Rusty resets the breaker, it is a double pull breaker that is reset, which typically provides 220 volts, and the breaker is off instead of tripped. (01:09:00)
Continuity mistake: When the family is on the front lawn to inaugurate the Christmas lights, between shots a blue Lincoln at the curb disappears and a station wagon appears across the street.
Visible crew/equipment: When Eddie and Clark are putting the burned chair in the garbage, you can see the shadow of the camera following them.
Continuity mistake: When Rocky runs out of the RV and stands in front of his mom, her mittened right hand is on his shoulder but in the next shot it's not.
Continuity mistake: When Eddie and Clark are drinking eggnog, Eddie knocks down the decoration with propellers on it. When Eddie walks to the table with the nuts on it the camera shots cut from Eddie to Clark attempting to fix the decoration. In each shot that we go back to Clark, the number of propellers left on the decoration change even after Clark has given up fixing it. (00:45:55)
Revealing mistake: When Julia Louis-Dreyfus has the dog jump on her, you can tell it's a stunt double. In the shot of Julia, the gem on the back of her sequence dress and her hair doesn't go below the gem. When Snot is about to jump on her, the hair completely covers the gem and is much fuller and looks like a wig.
Other mistake: When Clarke and Eddy are drinking eggnog by the tree, and Snots is drinking the tree water, look at the tree's trunk. It's a birch tree not a pine.
Visible crew/equipment: Just as Clark begins his explosive argument, there is a shot of the family watching in horror, and the top of the set is visible at the top of the frame.
Continuity mistake: The blinds are ripped out of the neighbors' window frame when Clark "harvests" his replacement tree from outside. However, when Margot is outside telling Todd to "slug that creep in the face", you can see blinds are still in the window. (01:17:20 - 01:21:55)
Revealing mistake: The family runs upstairs with the dog and the squirrel and then runs downstairs. You can see a cut in the movie, because the rug moves. (01:21:30)
Continuity mistake: When the squirrel jumps of the Christmas tree it lands on the floor, but in the next shot it is on the coffee table. (01:19:50)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the movie, the Griswold family makes marks in the snow when they arrive at the tree which Clark wants. A shot later, the marks are bigger even though they haven't moved. (00:08:05)
Continuity mistake: When Clark falls off the roof, the staple gun goes down before him. In the next shot, it's not heading down from his point of view.
Answer: They didn't go to a Christmas tree farm. He took them to a huge forest to get one most likely because it would be easier to get one free then to pay for one.
They went to a tree farm. After running off the road and jumping the snowbank the wagon crashes through a sign that says "Trees." Clark then says, "We're here...and we made good time too." The humor is Clark forgoes a normal "farmed" tree for the "wild" monster he takes home.
False. They may have run over the tree farm sign, but they absolutely did not harvest a tree from the tree farm.