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.

6. Candy-Land, presented alongside the luxury hotel's Bar Cocoa Dessert Boutique. Candy-Land will delight all the senses, providing displays, tastes and demonstrations of creative hot chocolates, flavored marshmallows, peppermint candy gelato and other holiday temptations. A few selections will even make use of sweet natural honey harvested from the two beehives located on the hotel's green, vegetated roof.

7. Upon departure from the Lobby, guests will marvel at the ultimate Charlotte "first," this time located directly outside Bar Cocoa. Here, an environmentally-friendly holiday tree will soar 17 feet toward the sky, to be constructed of 789 recycled/recyclable green plastic bottles. The LEED® Gold-certified Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte is the city's only such eco-designated property, and the recycled bottle tree represents both a fond farewell to those enjoying the hotel's Holiday Sweet Scenes and a joyous salute to the treasured surrounding environment.

The public is invited to view Holiday Sweet Scenes at The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte beginning Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 2014. Access is offered via the hotel Lobby front entrance, located at 201 East Trade Street. Guests will complete their tour via the side doors on College Street, as they enter onto the impressive outdoor site of the recycled bottle holiday tree. The complimentary public visits will be offered between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily, continuing through December 28, 2014. Holiday Sweet Scenes will be complemented by several holiday events at The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte, including its popular Holiday Afternoon Tea series as well as holiday sweets cooking classes at Bar Cocoa's Cocoa Lab.

The AAA Five-Diamond Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte is located at 201 East Trade Street, at the corner of Trade and College Streets, in the heart of Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina. For further information or to make a room reservation, visit www.ritzcarlton.com/Charlotte or call 704-547-2244.

About The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., of Chevy Chase, Md., currently operates 87 hotels in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean. More than 30 hotel and residential projects are under development around the globe. For more information, or reservations visit the company web site at www.ritzcarlton.com. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR).