The Sri Lankan Christmas tree is the world’s tallest

artificial Christmas tree An artificial Christmas tree is an artificial pine or fir tree manufactured for the specific purpose of use as a Christmas tree. The earliest artificial Christmas trees were wooden, tree-shaped pyramids or feather trees, both developed by Germans. ...

. It was built on the

Galle Face Green Galle Face is a ocean-side urban park, which stretches for along the coast, in the heart of Colombo, the financial and business capital of Sri Lanka. The promenade was initially laid out in 1859 by Governor Sir Henry George Ward, although t ...

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, the tree is tall and opened on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipati ...

2016. The

cone A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines co ...

-shaped tree is a steel-and-wire frame made from

scrap Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered m ...

metal and wood, and covered by plastic netting. It is decorated with approximately one million natural

pine cones A conifer cone (in formal botany, botanical usage: strobilus, plural strobili) is a seed-bearing organ on gymnosperm plants. It is usually woody, ovoid to globular, including scales and bracts arranged around a central axis, especially in con ...

painted gold, green, red and silver colors. It has 600,000

LED bulb An LED lamp or LED light bulb is an electric light that produces light using light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LED lamps are significantly more energy-efficient than equivalent incandescent lamps and can be significantly more efficient than m ...

s which illuminate the tree at night. On the top of the tree there is a Christmas star with bulbs, weighing about . The tree cost 12 million

Sri Lankan rupee The Sri Lankan Rupee ( si, රුපියල්, ta, ரூபாய்; symbol: Re and Rs (plural) in English, රු in Sinhala, ௹ in Tamil; ISO code: LKR) is the currency of Sri Lanka. It is subdivided into 100 cents, but cents are rare ...

s (about US$80,000). The tree was constructed by 150 employees of the Sri Lankan Ministry of Ports and Shipping with support from other parties. Construction work began in August 2016 but was abandoned in the first week of December after the Sri Lankan

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

criticised it as "waste of money", and added "''Construction work should be abandoned. Christmas is an occasion for sharing funds with the needy, not to waste money on lavishness... The market economy is using religion as a tool for selling Christmas.''" Later, work on the tree recommenced after a meeting with Catholic Cardinal

Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don Albert Malcolm Ranjith ( Sinhala: පටබැඳිගේ දොන් ඇල්බට් මැල්කම් රංජිත්) (born 15 November 1947), often known simply as Malcolm Ranjith or Albert Malcolm Ranjith is a S ...

, the archbishop of Colombo. Originally the tree was planned to be tall but the height had to be reduced to due to the delays in construction. A

Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...

with a

sled A sled, skid, sledge, or sleigh is a land vehicle that slides across a surface, usually of ice or snow. It is built with either a smooth underside or a separate body supported by two or more smooth, relatively narrow, longitudinal runners ...

was placed near the tree. The tree broke the previous world record for the tallest artificial Christmas tree, which was tall and constructed in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong ...

, China in 2015 by GZ ThinkBig Culture Communication Co. Ltd.

Comparison

Comparison of Sri Lankan Christmas tree with some other structures as follows:

Current status

The tree had several criticisms apart from the Catholic Church. It did not have enough

ornaments An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration *Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts *Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals that appear to serve on ...

and

fir Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The genus is most closely related to ...

s. When compared with the tree that was built in Guangzhou, Sri Lankan tree failed to have green synthetic foliage. Also, it gave complete visibility of its internal frames or structure. The shape of the tree did not give enough appeal as a traditional Christmas tree, but rather resembled the shape a rocket. It was dismantled in January 2017. The tree is recorded by

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

s in December 2017.

References

External links

Politics of the Christmas Tree

The Daily Mirror ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

article. * {{Christmas trees Individual Christmas trees Artificial Christmas trees 2016 establishments in Sri Lanka Christmas in Sri Lanka Guinness World Records World record holders