The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte to Unveil Ultimate Holiday Viewing Experience, Including 17-Foot Tree Made of Recycled Bottles and an Edible Tree Crafted With 8,000 Hand-Made French Macarons

CHARLOTTE, NC--(Marketwired - Dec 1, 2014) - The ultimate holiday viewing experience will come to life at The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte this year, as a brilliantly colorful winter wonderland is set occupy the entire Lobby level of the luxury Charlotte hotel beginning Thanksgiving Day. 

Highlighted by a larger-than-life, often edible series of seven Holiday Sweet Scenes, the vibrantly walkable tour of every child's holiday fantasies will feature the world's largest croquembouche pastry tree standing eight feet in edible height; a 12-foot tall holiday tree made of 8,000 hand-crafted French macarons; a whimsical 10-foot tall gingerbread house offering its own charming clock tower; two glistening, eight-foot tall upside-down trees suspended from the Lobby ceiling; and the pièce de résistance -- a 17-foot green holiday tree constructed completely of recycled plastic bottles: 789 of them, to be exact.

Holiday Sweet Scenes at The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte will feature the following stops along its deliciously enchanting path:

1. A dramatic, hand-sculpted dessert showpiece, created as a chocolate Santa's Sleigh led by four giant Chocolate Reindeer, welcoming arrivals into the front portion of the Lobby. The sleigh will serve as a drop-off point for guests wishing to leave teddy bears to be donated to the city's Levine Children's Hospital.

2. A whimsically charming Gingerbread House for Santa's Elves, featuring a throwback cottage design, 12 feet in width, with its own 10-foot-high clock tower and an adjoining cottage garden hosting live trees and several resident elves. The colorful elves are favorites from Mark Roberts' beloved Elves Days of Christmas.

3. Two sparkling teal, silver and white holiday tinsel trees, eight feet high and suspended upside down from the Lobby ceiling, creating their own light show directly around and beneath them.

4. A re-imagined new version of the hotel's historic 8,000 macaron holiday tree -- a life-size culinary masterpiece requiring a 58-hour assembly marathon by the hotel's pastry team. This year's tree will present vibrant new colors of the sweetly fragrant hand-crafted macarons used in its groundbreaking construction, with silver and gold gilding the new creation.

5. The world's largest croquembouche tree, eight feet in height and featuring 1,700 French profiteroles as its delectable building blocks. The European-inspired croquembouche is made with choux pastry balls shaped into a tree formation and then ringed with sweet caramel. Located next to the Lobby grand staircase, The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte holiday croquembouche will be noteworthy not only for its record-setting size, but also for the gingerbread and pastillage ornaments and crystal sugar beads which will garnish its exterior.