#Anton Plattner

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The World’s Strangest Christmas Trees

The Legoland Christmas Tree in Carlsbad, California

The Sand Tree in West Palm Beach, Florida

Weighing in at nearly 600 tons, Sandi is the world’s largest Christmas tree made entirely from sand. Sculpted by Team Sandtastic—an internationally renowned sand-sculpting team—Sandi climbs nearly 35 feet high on the West Palm Beach Waterfront and steals the show during the city’s month-long Holiday in Paradise celebration. 

The Traffic Light Tree in London, England

Created in 1998 by French sculptor Pierre Vivant, the “Traffic Light Tree” originally stood on a roundabout near London’s Canary Wharf, but has since been relocated to a different roundabout near Billingsgate Market. The tree stands more than 26-feet-tall and incorporates 75 sets of computer-operated traffic lights. 

“The sculpture imitates the natural landscape of the adjacent London Plane Trees,” Vivant said, “while the changing pattern of the lights reveals and reflects the never ending rhythm of the surrounding domestic, financial, and commercial activities.”

So maybe it’s not technically a Christmas tree. But with all those lights (and critique of consumer culture), it may be hard to tell the difference.

The Largest Human Christmas Tree in Chengannur, India

According to Guinness World Records, the largest human Christmas tree in the world was assembled on December 19, 2015, in Chengannur, India. Some 4,030 participants—most of them local school children—sported green, red, or brown hats and shirts, depending on which part of the tree they represented. The previous record was set in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in 2014, with 2,945 volunteers and government employees.

The Tumbleweed Tree in Chandler, Arizona

Since 1957, the city of Chandler has crafted a Christmas tree from what was once its most plentiful natural resource: the tumbleweed. Today, Chandler is hardly the isolated community it was 60 years ago (in fact, it’s now a suburb of Phoenix) and the tumbleweeds don’t tumble like they used to. Parks employees keep their eyes peeled for months each year, hoping to gather the nearly 1,000 tumbleweeds necessary to veil the 25-foot-tall wire frame. Once the tumbleweeds are attached, the city sprays the tree with 25 gallons of white paint, 20 gallons of flame retardant, and 65 pounds of glitter. The entire thing is then adorned with 1,200 holiday lights.

The Ski Tree in Telluride, Colorado

Created in 2013 by local metal artist Anton Viditz-Ward, in collaboration with a slew of community organizations, the world’s first and only “Ski Tree” in Telluride stands 17-feet tall. It’s composed entirely of donated skis, and topped with a starburst of ski poles. The installation is “a celebration of snowsports and what makes Telluride funky,” according to the official Ski Tree Facebook page. Each year, the tree lighting is followed by a ceremonial ski burn that pays homage to the Norse God Ullr, Patron Saint of Skiers.

The Traffic Tree in Berlin, Germany

Towering at nearly 40-feet-tall and belching fire every 30 minutes, this dystopian twist on the holiday tradition earned the honorable title of “Germany’s Ugliest Christmas Tree” by German tabloid Bild when it was first displayed in 2011. Artist Thomas Plattner, who specializes in found objects, built the “Traffic Tree” from scrap metal and junkyard paraphernalia. It’s a reflection, he told The Local, of “the throwaway nature of our society.”

The Holographic Christmas Tree in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Installed in December 2013 in the atrium at the Rijksmuseum, this 24-foot-tall shape-shifting Christmas tree isn’t a physical tree at all: it’s a hologram. Designed in part by Beambrothers, a company specializing in “high end projection,” the holographic Christmas tree played on loop above visitors’ heads, rotating 360 degrees, changing colors and shaking loose in the wind.

The Poinsettia Christmas Tree in Omaha, Nebraska

Every year since 2001, Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha has displayed a 20-foot-tall poinsettia tree lit up for the Christmas season. In early July, gardeners plant more than 5,000 poinsettia cuttings from 25 separate cultivars in their greenhouse gardens in preparation for their holiday show. The tree itself is composed of 720 potted poinsettias, which are replaced halfway through the show to maintain the tree’s texture, color, and bloom. To add to the holiday spirit, model trains circle the display on 300 feet of track, snaking through dozens of miniature Omaha-area landmarks.

The Deer Horn Tree in Junction, Texas

In a county thick with whitetail deer, why not build a 12-foot-tall antler tree outside the wild game processing plant? The antlers were first assembled on the lawn of Kimble Processing in 1968. Around the holidays, the tree is adorned with ornaments, topped with a star, and bathed in floodlight. As of press time, Rudolf could not be reached for comment.

The Lobster Trap Christmas Tree in Rockland, Maine

This year marks the 13th-anniversary of the famous Lobster Trap Christmas Tree in downtown Rockland. Constructed by more than 30 volunteers from various community organizations, the 40-foot-tall tree features no less than 154 lobster traps and bursts with hometown pride.

“We brag that our Lobster Trap Tree is the largest one in the world,” Gordon Page, Sr., executive director of Rockland Main Street, Inc., told Travel + Leisure, “determined by a special hyperbolic measuring device designed specifically for this purpose.”

Hawaii’s Christmas Banyan Tree in Lahaina

Lahaina’s banyan tree was planted in 1873 to commemorate the first anniversary of Christian missionaries’ presence on the Hawaiian island. Only eight feet tall when it was brought from India, the tree now measures almost an acre wide and has a dozen primary trunks. Thousands of lights are used to decorate the historic tree every Christmas.