) .- West Palm Beach, in southeastern Florida (USA), has been showing off its rare Christmas tree made with sand for 10 years, which this year measures 35 feet (10.6 meters) and has won the first prize in a national urban Christmas lighting competition.
The “Sandi Tree”, as the locals call it, is an authentic sculpture made by a group of artists called the Sandtastic, which since 2012 has been erected at Christmas in a plaza in downtown West Palm Beach.
The tree has been increasing in size over the years. From 400 tons in 2012 to 700 in 2021.
It took sculptors more than two weeks to erect the tree, which was unveiled and illuminated on December 2 in a ceremony led by the city’s mayor, Keith James.
Although West Palm Beach has many beaches in its territory, the fine sand used to raise the tree comes from a quarry in Miami.
This year, “Sandi” is accompanied by other sand sculptures and is illuminated by thousands of LED lights of various colors and synchronized with the music that plays every night to the delight of locals and tourists who visit this coastal city, neighboring the exclusive Palm Beach island.
Readers of the USA Today newspaper this year recognized the “Sandi Tree” as the best Christmas public lighting in the entire country.
Mary Pinak, in charge of celebrations at the Mayor’s Office of West Palm Beach, stressed that behind the sand tree is the idea that the traditional fir trees do not represent this beach community, because “they are not tropical.”
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