With the ideals of Christmas being charity and giving, it's nice to know that the Emirates Palace is displaying a Christmas tree worth $11.5 million. According to The National, the Emirates Palace will be showcasing some jewelry. (To read the details, click here.)This tree has emeralds, gold, sapphires and diamonds on it. The most expensive "ornament" on it is a diamond necklace worth around $1 million. The least expensive items on it are worth a mere $10,000. (You can view a video of it here.) The insurance on the items had to be negotiated and the eventual premium came to 50,000 dirhams or around $15,000.
Lest people become cynical, this is all being done for a good cause: to get into the Guiness Book of World Records as the world's most expensive Christmas tree. This tree breaks the record held by Japan at $10.8 million. Go Abu Dhabi!
I just want to note that over the past couple of weeks, the Emirates Palace has taken a lot of flack for this tree. Even though I added a few friendly jibes to this, I want to go on the record as saying that I don't think they did anything wrong.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to criticisms about the money spent, they didn't actually spend $11 million. The jewelry was on loan from the jewelry store in the hotel. It was merely a creative way of displaying jewelry that was for sale.
As for a predominantly non-Christian country having such an opulent Christmas tree, keep in mind the previous record was held by a department store in Japan, a predominantly non-Christian country.
Believe me, if you want to criticize Abu Dhabi or the UAE, there are much more worthy targets than this.