Definitely NOT The True Meaning Of Christmas: Hotel's $11 Million Tree

This is the (Abu Dhabi) Emirates Palace hotel's $11 million Christmas tree. Well, technically the tree only cost $10K, it's just covered in $11 million of gold and diamond tackery. It's a marketing effort to drum up interest in the hotel. Right, like I'm rich enough to fly to the UAE and stay in a $400 - $7,000/night hotel. Just sayin', I had to ask a friend to spot me bus-fare yesterday. Plus I stole two packs of Ramen when he was in the bathroom!

The vast majority of the population of the oil-rich UAE are Muslim.

But Mr Olbertz said he did not think the tree would offend local sensibilities.

"It's a very liberal country," he said, according to AFP.

Asked what security measures were in place to prevent theft of jewellery from the tree, assistant director of marketing Hazem Harfoush said the tree was "good proof that Abu Dhabi is a safe destination".

And the hotel was even safer, Mr Harfoush told the BBC.

"We have 24/7 security, four security guards closely monitoring the space plus security cameras."

"Very liberal country" aside, did that just say FOUR security guards? Can you excuse me for just a sec? *dialing* Hello, Grinch? Tie Max's antler back on, it's time to steal another Christmas.

UAE hotel boasts 'most expensive Christmas tree ever' [bbcnews]

Thanks to Liz, who doesn't like trees and decided to decorate a shrub instead. What the -- WHO DOESN'T LIKE TREES?!

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