Abu Dhabi hotel regrets $11M Christmas ‘overload’
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – An Abu Dhabi luxury hotel that boasted an $11 million Christmas tree decorated with gold and gems admitted Sunday it may have taken the holiday spirit a bit too far.
A statement from the Emirates Palace hotel said it regretted “attempts to overload” the Christmas tree tradition by adorning it with premium bling including gold, rubies, diamonds and other precious stones from a hotel jeweler.
[Closer to home: Local guides to the best holiday lights near you]
The statement was a rare bit of reflection on the Gulf’s ethos of excess. The tree was unveiled last week with full fanfare in a hotel that features its own gold bar vending machine and a one-week $1 million package that includes private jet jaunts around the Middle East.
But the hotel management apparently had second thoughts after questions arose about whether the opulent tree was innocent good cheer or unfortunate bad taste.
The hotel regrets “attempts to overload the tradition followed by most hotels in the country with meanings and connotations that do not fall in line with the (hotel’s) professional standards,” said a statement carried on the state-run news agency WAM.
The hotel even tried to distance itself from the 43-foot (13-meter) faux fir in one of its rotundas, saying a hotel-based jeweler was solely responsible for creating and decorating the tree.
“The hotel is just a venue for exhibiting the tree,” the statement said.
The hotel also claimed the tree was not a stunt, but rather an effort to boost the holiday mood for its guests based on the United Arab Emirates’ “values of openness and tolerance.”
Although officially Muslim, the UAE features many signs of Christmas for its huge foreign population. Lights, carolers and Santas are fixtures in nearly every mall.
blackwatertown
December 20, 2010
Wahey – they tremble under our gaze.
samhenry
December 20, 2010
Bien sur! And surely they have noted that we did not threaten death to the Abu Dhabians because they trashed our tree!
DarcsFalcon
December 21, 2010
Good cheer or bad taste?
I dunno – I appreciate the sentiment, you know? They put up a tree and that’s great, but it’s not about all the jewels and stuff, you know? It IS an opulent hotel so I understand them going “overboard” a bit on the decorations, but bling from a jeweler? That seems a bit out of the Christmas spirit.
I do wonder if they put the traditional Nativity scene under the tree? Somehow, I suspect not.
samhenry
December 21, 2010
How about it was just plain thoughtless? Not very PC there LOL.
The Morb
December 21, 2010
This is because these particular desert dwellers know where their wealth comes from … These are the ones that play the game with western society to their advantage … The ones with their firm grasp on the benefits of claiming ownership of the earth’s blood that rises easily , upward through their sand … We fed them … WE created this … A few of THEM ! figured it out !!! …
The ones that run around in the desert in sandals and poverty are the ones that get easily brainwashed into killing themselves in the name of their fairy tale because of the HUGE consumption by western society of the product this bullshit area of the world has a stranglehold on !!! … Which allow the few that have control over it to live opulently and it angers the pagans !!! …
Despite the wealth in that area of the world … Many don’t understand the concept of TOILETS !!! …
They do seem to understand destruction tho …
I wish I was in charge !!! … I’d have this sorted out in about three days !!!
samhenry
December 21, 2010
You hit the mother load, Morb. This is exactly what is going on. WE did indeed create them.