Christmas is a time for giving, certainly, but it is also a time to dress up in our best clothes and our best decorations in order to celebrate. Most of us deck the halls with a bit of tinsel and ribbon. Our trees are covered in sparkling ornaments, but for the most part they are made of painted glass and plastic. No so everywhere though. One hotel in Abu Dhabi is taking their holiday decorations very seriously.

A Golden Tree

At the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi, where you can actually purchase your gold from the world’s first gold vending machine, Christmas is celebrated in style. This year that style includes a forty-three foot high faux fir tree studded with gold as well as bejeweled ornaments.

The hotel’s general manager states that the tree is decorated with one hundred and thirty one of these ornaments—each created with care by one of the hotel’s jewelers. Manager Hans Olbertz states that he and the jeweler worked together to produce what he calls a “unique tree and experience for [his] guests this year.”

A World Record

The tree is certainly unique. It’s current estimated worth is somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 million US dollars for the gold alone. The jewels on the ornaments include diamonds and sapphire. There has even been some discussion among hotel officials about contacting the Guinness World Record office regard in the record for most expensive tree.

According to Guinness, the current world’s most expensive Christmas tree is a 10.8 million dollar tree from Tokyo in 2002. That tree was adorned with approximately 83 pieces of jewelry from Piaget Japan. The gold alone on the Abu Dhabi tree makes it a more than likely contender as well as a stylish example to potential guests and investors.

image via Flickr user Lars Plougmann