On December 08, 2009 Marie Christiane Marek hosted “The Designers’ Christmas Trees” at the Cite de l’architecture et du patrimoine in Paris.

World-famous designers have sold 20 Christmas trees for a total of 41,500€ to be donated to The Foundation headed by France’s First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

Since 1996 several famous names have taken part, including Stella McCartney, Jean Paul Gaultier and Marc Jacobs.

Iconic London hotel Claridge’s has unveiled its Christmas tree, which this year has been designed by Dior creative director John Galliano.

The tree, which takes its inspiration from icy snow scenes, mixed with a tropical twist, dominates the hotel’s lobby.

It is painted in white and metallic blue and perched among its branches are a handmade leopard, several parrots and a dragonfly.

Swarovski, recently unveiled the newly refurbished crystal star that will crown the 2009 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.

The star is high-tech: it has enhancements such as a new cutting-edge computerized lighting system and energy-efficient LED bulbs.

This is the first year that the Swarovski star, which debuted at the top of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in 2004, will feature dynamic light movement.

The world’s most expensive Christmas tree has just gone on display in Japan – and it worth a cool $1,5 million.

Despite the recession, the makers have created the dazzling 24k gold tree to create a “gorgeous atmosphere”.

The tree is decorated with more than 240 jewels including diamond baubles and strings of pearls, weighs more than 21 kilograms – and is worth 150 million yen.

Although christmas is still six-months away I can’t help myself featuring this piece of art.

The Christmas tree ball on the picture above is supposed to be the world’s most expensive Christmas ornament, in the Krebs Glas Lauscha GmbH company.

The transparent glass ball is decorated with finely sculpted solid 12 karat gold and 120 diamonds of the clarity VS1 with a total weight of 5.1 carats.

The price of the bauble in shops will be 20,000 Euro ($31,400) – It must be really fragile so you’d better keep your kids away from the tree and lock them in their bedroom during Christmas Eve ^_^ (Source)