Holiday excess

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This article was published 07/12/2019 (2240 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s the time of year when TV viewers try to get themselves in the holiday spirit by plopping down on the couch to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas for the umpteenth time.

As most of you already know, this is the beloved animated TV special wherein Lucy sends Charlie Brown on a quest to buy a Christmas tree — “a great big, shiny aluminum tree… maybe painted pink” — to set the “proper mood” for the school play.

When Charlie and his pal Linus return with a sad-sack sapling — the only real tree among a sea of glittery fakes — our round-headed hero is resoundingly ridiculed by the rest of the Peanuts gang, which leads to little Linus delivering his famous spotlight speech on the true meaning of Christmas.

It wouldn’t give them insights into the season, but we suspect the Peanuts gang would have been far more impressed if Charlie had returned toting the festive tree unveiled earlier this month by the Kempinski Hotel Bahia, nestled near Marbella along Spain’s southern coast.

What we’re talking about is arguably the world’s most expensive Christmas tree, a gaudy designer evergreen decorated with white, black, pink and red diamonds — with a few sapphires, 3D-printed chocolate peacocks and bottles of perfume thrown in for good measure — worth a staggering US$15 million.

If that gets you in the holiday mood, you’ll love today’s overpriced list of Five of the World’s Most Ridiculously Expensive Yuletide Trees:

5) The tree: The Swarovski Crystal Tree

The tab: US$1.8 million

The trimmings: Anyone who loves Christmas is familiar with the sparkly holiday decorations created by Swarovski, the iconic family-run Austrian firm that is renowned for its crystal decorations and jewelry. The stuff is not cheap.

For instance, a limited edition 2019 crystal Snow White ornament will set you back a mere US$599. In 2013, the Swarovski company teamed up with JCDecaux Transport, the world’s largest outdoor advertising corporation, to erect a one-of-a-kind Christmas tree at Hong Kong International Airport.

What we are talking about here is a 15-metre tree that glitters with millions — some reports pegged the number as high as 20 million — of Swarovski crystals. “As expected, Hong Kong is never going to be outdone by Asian neighbours Singapore and Japan. And it’s not going to be satisfied with a mere mall or store display: it’s going for the airport, for the jugular window to the world so everybody from the planet visiting the place will not miss its glittery intent,” gushed the website financesonline.com.

The tree featured gold and silver crystals brought in from Austria and it was positioned for maximum effect. It was erected in a location that was highly visible from both the arrivals and departures levels, creating “incomparable impact” on both travellers and meeters and greeters, JCDecaux said at the time. The towering crystal display also featured some high-tech flourishes, including digital interactive touch screen technology, which let holiday travellers take photos under the US$1.8-million holiday tree and create customized e-greeting cards that could be shared via email and social media.

 

4) The tree: The Preserved Rose Mini Christmas Tree

The tab: US$1.8 million

The trimmings: When it comes to Christmas, a lot of people believe bigger is better. But there is another school of thought that states “good things come in small packages.” To hit the nail on the head, we will cite the phrase made famous by German-born British economist E. F. Schumacher, namely: “Small is beautiful.”

And when it comes to Christmas trees, they don’t come much smaller or more beautiful than a stunning little gem whipped up almost a decade ago for an outlet of Takashimaya, the glitzy Japanese department store chain. What we’re talking about here is a tabletop Yuletide tree that measures a mere 40 centimetres in height, but would pack a huge hit on your wallet — an impressive US$1.8 million.

In some ways, it was more of a Christmas bush than a tree. But that’s not the point. The point is this is one of the most expensive holiday trees in history. It was based on a design by famed Parisian flower boutique Claude Quinquaud and was essentially a small tower of preserved roses watched over by a red teddy bear.

“On the petals of each rose, however, are diamonds of Australian and African extraction,” according to the website financesonline.com and other sites. “They lay on the petals like drops of dew that fills another type of thirst, and for anyone capable of shelling out a full US$1.8 million. The bear companion is no less paltry… it features a diamond pendant that twinkles with the stars above.” You’ll find this festive item on most online lists of pricey holiday trees, but, sadly, not wrapped up under your own tree.

 

3) The tree: The Gold Coin Tree

The tab: US$2.6 million

The trimmings: All that glitters may not be gold, but when it glitters like this next tree, it has to be the real thing. In 2018, German gold dealer Pro Aurum decided to build a showstopper of a tree in the reception area of its Munich gold house.

To the untrained eye, it resembled a towering collection of those gold foil-wrapped chocolate coins that children frequently find tucked into their Christmas stockings. But this glittering three-metre-high pyramid was made from the real thing. Valued at a whopping US$2.6 million — or roughly 2.3 million euros — it was billed by Pro Aurum as “the most expensive Christmas tree in Europe.”

This pricey holiday decoration was made from an incredible 2,018 solid gold one-ounce Vienna Philharmonic coins — created in co-operation with the Austrian Mint — that all rest in special slots on an acrylic tree. On the top of the tree is arguably the priciest Christmas star ever created — crafted from a giant 20-ounce gold coin. “The coins pay tribute to the Vienna Philharmonic and were designed by the Austrian Mint. The 10-foot-tall golden tree stands on a base that looks like Vienna’s Golden Hall of the Wiener Musikverein, regarded as the crown jewel among the world’s concert halls,” the website artistryingold.ca gushed.

It all added up to 63 kilograms of pure gold, a Pro Aurum spokesman told Reuters news agency in 2018. It took more than an hour to pop all the gold coins in their slots, and the pricey tree was only on display until Dec. 15 that year. “This is one tree that won’t be left in the office when no one is around to watch over it,” Global News joked of the glittering display. Tragically, Pro Aurum’s gold-coin tree could have ranked higher up our list, but its value took a serious hit when the gold rate tumbled in the second half of 2018.

 

2) The tree(s): Ginza Tanaka’s Golden Trio

The tab(s): US$4.2 million, US$1.8 million, US$468,000

The trimmings: If your looking for something in a solid-gold tree, you could do worse than checking out Ginza Tanaka, a Tokyo jewelry store that specializes in precious metals.

These are the guys who, in 2017, offered life-sized Darth Vader masks made from 24-carat gold for a hefty US$1.4 million to mark the 40th anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars movie. In 2012, the store created a solid-gold US$4.24-million, 2.4-metre tree to commemorate the 110th anniversary of Walt Disney. “Calling out to all Disney fans, this 40-kg Disney gold Christmas tree is decked with 50 Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Tinker Bell, Cinderella, etc. Trimmed with gold ornaments, the tree revolves on a carousel which offers a detailed view to everybody,” luxurylaunches.com noted.

It took 10 artisans two months to create. The precious metal accounted for half the tree’s value — the rest is essentially the price of the design. But that doesn’t make it a bad deal — most gold jewelry sells for at least five times its actual gold value, according to Jeffrey Singer of Circa, an international buyer of jewelry, watches and diamonds, in an interview with CTV. In 2016, Ginza Tanaka struck gold again with a tabletop tree decorated with 19 kilograms of pure gold processed into 4,000 feet of thin golden wires that was on sale for a hefty US$1.8 million.

The Midas-worthy tree was meant to commemorate the shop’s 90th anniversary in Japan. This icon of Tokyo’s Ginza district also churned out a 12-kg solid-gold tree that was pegged at a modest US$468,000. “Ginza Tokyo is not only famous for its Tanaka jewelry, it’s also the place where you will find land with the most astronomic valuation on Earth, a match for the gold pieces dished out by one of its residents, Tanaka jewelry store,” according to financesonline.com.

 

1) The tree: The Emirates Palace Christmas Tree

The tab: US$11.4 million

The trimmings: The No. 1 spot on today’s list goes to the tree that was the most expensive in the world, until it was toppled from that lofty holiday perch this month by the gaudy Yuletide spectacle at the Kempinski Hotel Bahia near Marbella, Spain.

In 2010, what was at the time the priciest tree sprouted in the gold-leaf-bedecked atrium at the luxurious Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi, which is not the first place that comes to mind when you think about Christmas. With a value pegged in excess of US$11 million, the 13-metre tree — displayed from Dec. 16-19, 2010 — earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Decorated with traditional silver and gold bows, baubles and white lights, the tree was also decked out in gold necklaces, earrings and other jewelry, giving it its record value, according to theDaily Mail newspaper in Britain.

“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,” the Daily Mail reported after the unveiling. Hans Olbertz, general manager of the hotel, was quoted as saying: “The tree itself is about $10,000. The jewelry has a value of over $11 million — I think 11.4m, 11.5m.”

Asked if the tree might offend religious sensibilities in the United Arab Emirates, where the vast majority of the population is Muslim, Olbertz told the Daily Mail: “It’s a very liberal country.” As one online report gushed: “In hindsight, for a hotel that provides automatic machines to sell gold bars and the use of a private jet, an $11.4-million Christmas tree is no big deal.” And that’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca