It's impossible for many to conceive of a Christmas season without a Christmas tree in the house, but Uber—the service that made it a lot easier to get a ride in many places—is teaming up with The Home Depot to make Christmas trees as easy to get as a ride with Uber. The service is set to be available in 10 cities, and for people in those 10 cities, the end result should be something to see.

Uber's blog spells out how it all works. Just start by downloading the Uber app, then on Dec. 5, select the “UberTREE” option on the app. With the proper timing, Uber will then bring out not only a tree, but also a tree stand and a special bonus gift from Uber within a few minutes. Availability, of course, will be very limited—some users likely remember the pocket debacle back at the end of October in which Uber planned to deliver kittens at no charge in honor of National Cat Day, but quickly ran out of said kittens following the discovery that the Internet absolutely loves cats—so those who act fast are most likely to get in.

The cost to have a tree delivered will actually be fairly steep, as it will run $135 that will be charged to the payment method tied to the Uber account in question, be it a standard credit (or likely debit as well) card, Google Wallet, or PayPal (News - Alert) account, and the trees will be brought to the first point of entry on a delivery location, so specifying the back door or the like probably won't be allowed. Most cities will get a 7-8 foot Fraser Fir, though in San Diego and San Francisco, that tree will be switched to a similarly-sized Noble Fir.

From the look of it, this is more of a pilot program than anything else, with a fairly limited range operating in just a handful of the largest cities. Still, if this turns out to work, it may be that—maybe not next year or the year after, but fairly soon—Uber will expand this concept outward. It's not like there isn't a demand for Christmas trees pretty much anywhere in the United States; enough Christmas tree lots pop up in enough places every year, not to mention the concept of the artificial tree that's sold in virtually any store that even pretends to be a big-box store. Thus it's easy to look at this like a pilot program, working out some of the kinks, getting a better handle on levels of demand and levels of supply needed to match that demand. Surely Uber isn't interested in telling people that it's out of trees; right now, no one at Uber likely wants to see headlines involving either the words “Scrooge” or “Grinch” because no trees were available.

Still, not only is this a clever idea, it's only really representative of a larger idea: the idea that anything can be delivered to your door, from work to play and well beyond. From Amazon's hopeful drone flotilla to online job listings, the idea that a user can get it without driving somewhere to do so is not only catching on, it's only getting bigger and involving more items. It may only be a matter of time before users never need to leave the house again, and for many, that day will bring a sigh of relief.