$11M Christmas Tree Was a Bit Over the Top: Abu Dhabi

UAE hotel apologizes for 'attempts to overload tradition'
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 19, 2010 5:58 AM CST
$11M Christmas Tree Was a Bit Over the Top: Abu Dhabi
Two Emirate men look to a Christmas tree which has been decked out with dollars 11 million U.S. (14.3 million euro) worth of gold, at the Emirates Palace hotel, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Thursday Dec. 16, 2010. The hotel's general manager, Hans Olbertz, was quoted in local newspapers Thursday...   (Hussein Malla)

Your Christmas tree might be looking a little wan this year, but the party keeps going over in Abu Dhabi in the form of an $11 million Christmas tree. But even the posh hotel that put up the monstrosity now says it might have been a bit overkill: The Emirates Palace, which features a gold bar vending machine, said today that it regretted "attempts to overload the tradition," reports the AP.

How does one manage to blow $11 million on a Christmas tree? The 43-foot faux fir is weighed down by gold, rubies, and diamonds, courtesy of a hotel jeweler. But the Emirates Palace even went so far as to blame the jeweler for the opulence, saying, "The hotel is just a venue for exhibiting the tree."
(More Abu Dhabi stories.)

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