Dubai Mall home to the world's largest Christmas bauble

The ornament is nearly seven metres tall and weighs a whopping 1,100 kilograms

The Dubai Mall is officially home to the world's largest Christmas bauble ornament. Courtesy The Dubai Mall

One might not expect to find the world's largest Christmas bauble ornament in the Middle East, but as of this week you will find it hanging in the Star Atrium of The Dubai Mall until the end of January 2019.

To add yet another Guinness World Record to the emirate's ever-expanding portfolio, the retail destination had American design company Venue Arts custom build the metallic bauble, which measures almost 6.597 metres in height, 4.689 metres in width and weighs in at a whopping 1,100 kilograms. It hangs, alongside four more giant festive ornaments, in the heart of Dubai's biggest and most popular shopping centre.

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.

The UAE's other records

Another record was also set earlier this month in the UAE, at the Abu Dhabi Food Festival, where the world's biggest chicken margougah was cooked up. It weighed 4,775kg, took five hours to cook, and beat the previous world record for the largest meat stew by 695kg. You'll be glad to know that what wasn't eaten by the public at the time of the stew's unveiling was shared with the Red Crescent Society.

Other Guinness World Records Dubai has held include everything from the weird and wacky to the utterly wonderful. For instance, the world's most expensive tyres were sold for Dh2.2 million. The largest gathering of people with the same first name happened when 1,096 Mohammeds came together at Creek Park. And Jumeirah Beach Road's Doner Restaurant cooked up the world's largest doner in 2011 – it was the first such attempt to be verified by Guinness World Records. Dubai is also home to the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

Record-breaking mall

Dubai Mall also has three other world records of its own (valid at the time they were awarded). Last year, Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, at The Dubai Mall, unveiled the world's largest OLED screen, measuring 709.69 square metres. The 1.7 million-pixel display also nabbed records for the "highest resolution video wall" and "largest high-definition video wall". In 2007, there was a double whammy when it was awarded "world's largest shopping mall" and "world's largest acrylic panel".

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Read more:

Christmas day brunches and lunches: festive feasts in Abu Dhabi and Dubai

Deconstructed: the Christmas jumper

Santa costumes around the world – in pictures

A Din Tai Fung with a fountain view is opening in Dubai Mall

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