'Tis the season to deck the halls and, well, <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/family/2021/12/23/uae-to-attempt-five-guinness-world-records-with-fireworks-on-new-years-eve/" target="_blank">break world records</a>. There are many ways to spread festive cheer, and some places do this by creating the biggest, brightest or most expensive Christmas-themed decorations and initiatives possible. Here are some of the most impressive festive Guinness World Records from around the world. Dubai might not be where you'd expect to find the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/dubai-mall-home-to-the-world-s-largest-christmas-bauble-1.805607" target="_blank">world’s largest Christmas bauble ornament</a> and yet that’s exactly where it is. The Dubai Mall set the record in 2018 when it unveiled the metallic bauble, which measures almost 6.59 metres in height, 4.68 metres in width and weighs a whopping 1,100 kilograms. It took a team of 15 people two nights to assemble the bauble – which was flown in inside 12 crates and three containers – and another night was spent hoisting it up with a forklift, spider lift and two boom lifts. Visitors to The Dubai Mall in 2021 can catch a glimpse of the bauble, as it currently hangs within the Star Atrium as part of the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/family/2021/12/18/dazzling-christmas-decorations-in-dubai-and-abu-dhabi-from-expo-2020-to-al-maryah-island/" target="_blank">mall’s festive decor</a>. The tallest plastic bottle sculpture in the world was in the shape of a Christmas tree and was achieved by Caroline Najib Chaptini and the Municipality of Chekka in Chekka, Lebanon, on December 14, 2019. More than 30 people helped to arrange 120,000 plastic bottles to create the 28.1-metre-tall sculpture. The record for the most expensively dressed Christmas tree goes to Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi. The luxury hotel’s 13.1-metre-high tree made waves in 2010 when it was erected and covered in 181 items of jewellery. The total value of these glittering ornaments? A whopping Dh41 million ($11m). This fun record was broken by <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/2021/12/10/santa-parachutes-into-global-village-to-light-up-giant-tree/" target="_blank">Dubai’s Global Village</a> on December 18, 2020. It was part of the global exhibition’s 25th anniversary campaign to break 25 Guinness World Records over the course of its 25th season, which ran from October 25, 2020 to May 2, 2021. A total of 2,144 letters to Santa were collected in 24 hours. A big fan of the festive season, Adam Wide in Berlin achieved this record with a collection of 7,929 Christmas brooches, verified on December 2, 2021. Wide started assembling brooches in 1984 and first set this record in 2008 with 542 items. Since then, he has broken his own record five times to reach the new total – and he has even got a few more pieces after he broke the most recent record. He estimates that his collection is worth £350,000 ($469,747). Over the years, Christmas baubles have become one of the most important festive decorations, with personalised and limited-edition versions cropping up. One resident of Swansea in Wales is such a fan that she has acquired a Guinness World Record-breaking collection of 1,760 bauble ornaments, as of December 1, 2021. The selections of Sylvia Pope, also known as "Nana Baubles", come from different parts of the world, as well as famous shops in the UK such as Liberty London and Harrods, and are spread throughout her house, even hanging from the ceiling. She believes that her collection will go beyond 2,000 in the next year or two. In December 2015, 4,030 children and adults in Chengannur, southern India gathered together wearing shades of red, green, brown and gold. Their mission? To stand together to create an aerial version of a giant Christmas tree. The sweet reason behind the record-breaking feat was to "join hands for world peace". On November 25, 2014, Siam Paragon Development Company in Bangkok managed to break the world record for having the largest gathering of people dressed up as Santa’s elves. A total of 1,762 “elves” gathered together to accomplish this feat in Thailand. Fun fact: 14 participants were disqualified for not wearing the correct costume.
