When the tree is more enticing than what's underneath it

We're taking a quick blog break for the holidays, but will leave you with this fun post to tide you over. What if your Christmas tree were more exciting than what lay beneath it?

As reported in the International Herald Tribune, earlier this month, 44 designer Christmas trees when on the auction block in Paris for the annual "Les Sapins de Noël des Créateurs," a charity auction. Among the offerings? A golden metal cone crafted from hundreds of Louis Vuitton emblems, tiers of eco-friendly cardboard disks from Stella McCartney, and designed from Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid. In fact, while Foster brought in about $11,000 for his tree, it was Hadid who took topped the night. Her creation, a white column of circling shapes, fetched 46,000 euros. Now that's one expensive tree!

All funds raised went to the Sol En Si charity, which helps families and children living with AIDS.