14 DAY TRIAL // If there’s a chance you’re thinking you overspent on decorations for this year’s Christmas tree, relax: there’s one in Abu Dhabi, at the exclusive Emirates Palace Hotel, that’s gunning for the title of world’s most expensive, valued at $11 million.
Clearly, this is no regular Christmas tree. Actually, for the sake of clarity, this is a regular tree, but it’s been adorned with golden jewelry with diamonds and sapphires that boost its value to the astronomical amount.
As the Daily Mail informs, it also has traditional Christmas decoration, so it’s not just for the sake of vanity that it’s been made.
“Dubbed one of the ‘most expensive Christmas trees ever,’ the glitzy Emirates Palace hotel has unveiled the 40ft evergreen in its gold-leaf bedecked atrium,” the Mail writes.
Right now, it seems to actually be the most expensive, topping the previous holder of the record: a tree unveiled in Tokyo in 2002 and decorated with $10.8 million worth of Piaget jewelrt.
“Decorated with traditional silver and gold bows, baubles and white lights, the tree is also decked out in necklaces, earrings and other jewelry giving it its record value,” the Mail says of the Abu Dhabi tree.
“It holds a total of 181 diamonds, pearls, emeralds, sapphires and other precious stones according to Khalifa Khouri, owner of Style Gallery which provided the jewelry,” says the same publication.
“The tree itself is about $10,000. The jewelry has a value of over $11million – I think 11.4m, 11.5m,” Hans Olbertz, general manager of the hotel, is quoted as saying.
He says the tree was made to bring joy to the many international tourists. In the following days, they will also see if they can get it in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most expensive Christmas tree.
For the time being, though, it’s up there, in the hotel’s atrium, for the pleasure of the tourists. Please see the Daily Mail piece here for pictures of this unique (by all accounts) Christmas tree.