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M Resort’s 2009 Christmas tree stands 109-feet tall, making it the tallest cut Christmas tree in the country, M Resort execs contend. The largest living, non-cut Christmas tree is in Coeur d’Alene Resort in Idaho and stands 161-feet tall.
Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.
Holiday celebration
Every family has its holiday traditions, but none may be as stressful as picking out the perfect Christmas tree.
Families can spend an entire day wandering tree lots in the cold to find the one that’s just right. Either that or they throw in the towel and settle for an artificial tree.
Then there’s the Marnell family. Picking out a Christmas tree for the family’s casinos has been a tradition for years.
They’ve been doing it since the family owned the Rio in the 1990s and are now bringing the tradition to M Resort for the property’s first Christmas.
This year, Anthony Marnell III and family found their tree in Oregon, a 109-foot, 11-ton White Fir — the tallest non-living Christmas tree, M Resort executives contend.
The tree made its journey from Oregon on a truck Nov. 29 and arrived in Henderson on Dec. 2.
Since the tree arrived at M’s Villaggio Del Sole Piazza, workers on cranes and ladders have been busy decorating it with thousands of lights and ornaments for tonight’s lighting.
But how is M Resort sure it has the tallest tree in the nation?
“We have a guy up in Oregon who has done this for us in the past,” Executive Vice President and General Manager John Lipkowitz said. “He takes care of all the measurements, weight and calculations. We really didn’t know it was going to be the tallest until others released their numbers.”
A close second goes to Costa Mesa, Calif.’s 96-foot-tall White Fir.
Probably the most famous Christmas tree in the nation — the one in Rockefeller Center in New York — is 76 feet tall.
The National Mall tree in Washington, D.C., is an 85-foot Blue Spruce from the White Mountains of Arizona, while the Obama family tree is an 18.5-foot Norway Spruce from Shepherdstown, W.Va.
There are several categories by which cities and resorts measure their trees. There’s tallest non-living tree (M Resort’s category), tallest living tree, tallest floating tree and the tallest artificial tree.
The Coeur d’Alene Resort in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, says it has the world’s tallest living tree this year at 161 feet.
Mexico City’s 367-foot tower of lights shaped like a tree is the tallest artificial tree, while Rio De Janeiro has the tallest floating artificial tree. Lipkowitz said the Marnell family had the nation’s tallest tree another year, at the Rio, but former staffers can’t remember the year. The family’s goal, regardless, has been to open its spaces for family-orientated, holiday fun, Lipkowitz said.
Tonight’s event will be free to the public with hot chocolate, cookies and carolers. And 50 Clark County schools will be competing in a gingerbread house competition.
M has hosted several public events since its opening, like Fourth of July and Labor Day parties, with a combined attendance of almost 14,000 people, Lipkowitz said.
“We are still relatively new in the market, and we are still trying to reach out to the Las Vegas community and remind them that we are here,” Lipkowtiz said.
But will the Marnell’s record for the year’s tallest live tree hold up between now and Christmas?
“They’ve got a couple days to go if they want to beat us. God bless ‘em if they make that happen,” Lipkowitz said. “We’ll still have the biggest tree in Las Vegas.”
I don't like this idea. A tree of this size belongs to the forest but not into the desert. It's a shame, and it shows once again how reckless human beings are and care nothing about environment. A x-mas tree will be thrown away after a few week, but in the forest this tree would live on for years!
...and it is perhaps the most sad looking "christmas" tree ever...
Where are the liberals and tree huggers? Blame America First (NPR) had a feel good story about people cutting their own trees in New Hampshire. I am stunned that they have no love for live Christmas trees. Liberals and Tree Huggers, we want to hear from you!
this will go a long way to reduce their CO2 footprint!
The last few years you could drive down the Las Vegas Strip on Christmas Day and not see a single Christmas tree or decoration, not even know it's Christmas, out of fear of political incorrectness.
Who else will break ranks and put up a Christmas tree this year?
Caesars Palace has a very large and sublimely decorated artificial tree disassembled in a warehouse. All they have to do is get it out and set it up.
JGM -- I agree. Before we moved to Las Vegas, my wife and I used to come here almost every Christmas and the tree at Caesars was always our favorite.
Back in the fifties and sixties the Flamingo had a beautiful Christmas Tree. Just check out the original Oceans Eleven to see how nice it looked!
I,m just amazed that people keep records on such things. Must have been a special permit to get a truck that long all the way from Oregon. I'm not a tree hugger, But I agree with Boris on this one. He makes a good point good point. Cutting a tree for a few week's worth of decoration is wasteful. I do plan on going to see it when we go to L.V. We have a 5' artificial tree in our house. no records set here, just saving the cost of a tree year after year! I'd be curious to know the cost of this tree, including shipping....might be another record there.
Do they not have trees due to fear of infringing on someone's beliefs, or perhaps because the casinos don't want to remind everyone that they're dumping the loot they "could" be using to buy Christmas presents???
Forget about political correctness, it's Christmas!! Put up that tree and nativity scene. If it offends you... don't look at it. It's that simple. Our family plans on checking out the M's tree this coming weekend.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
People would complain if there were Muhammed decorations on the strip. All things in perspective.
Why not plant the tree and
feed it from an underground
water tank where evaporation
is controlled?
i'm sure all the employees they laid off because of "slow business" are happy to see what could have been their wages go to this stupid tree.
The Christmas tree is as pagan as Halloween, and everyone loves pagan.
The crossover didn't start until the 16th century, first in Latvia, then to Germany, and to the rest of Europe.
The Christmas tree is as pagan as holly, mistletoe, and Harry Potter.
Casino owners, among the greediest and most rapacious of all people, putting up Christmas decorations. Truly hilarious.
Hey, the bigger the tree, the bigger the slot drop!
I hate to sound like the Grinch but I have to agree with some of the above. I can't believe they cut down a stately old tree of that size to put it in a parking lot for a month. What will happen to it when Christmas is over? I can't imagine there's anything that can be done except to have it chopped up.
sportyyetpratical :
Now I totally agree with your post here, What should be done is fake trees!
What a bunch of cry babies. Its one tree that is brought to a region of the country that is populated by people who might not other wise get to see a tree of this size. I'm all for the environment but what are we suppose to do, stop enjoying life. To that point I love the way all of these Las Vegas residents who are enjoying the large amounts of tax money that is taken from the casinos and re-distributed through state, county and city programs take every opportunity to attack the Casinos. All of you should be supporting the casinos since this is the only industry in Las Vegas that can pull Las vegas out of the reccession that is to some extent far worse in Vegas then in other parts of the country.
Fake trees for fake celebrations for the casinos. They do it not for the celebration but to bring in more suckers to their tables and slot machines. If it were truly a Christmas celebration, casinos should host Christmas programs like Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker or Handels Messiah.
Kenodave, casino's do host holiday programs; No christmas bonuses for workers.
It's a nice gesture. Thanks M. But the tree did look a little scrawny....LOL.
I think this is a great idea. I'm all for celebrating Christmas. I could care less about the impact to the environment or the people who don't celebrate the holiday.
Anything to get PR for our city is good.
S711
If every casino did this every year, then there would be a problem.
1 casino, 1 tree, for 1 year is not that big a deal.
Say what you want that is a BIG F'n TREE!