Citadel Giant: Lighting the World's Tallest Tree

"The world's tallest live cut Christmas tree" readies for its early November outlets debut.

Advertisements love to revisit those sepia-toned family traditions of the holidays time and again -- the cookie baking, the opening of gifts, happy caroling -- but rarely is the heated discussion of how much tree a den can handle included in these fond remembrances.

But many a family has bickered over the height of a tree before cutting it or purchase, yes? This, too, is tradition, in a way, though families across Southern California have to be relieved they don't have to figure out how to fit the world's largest live cut Christmas tree through the patio door this year.

Because most dens won't accept a tree that's 115 feet tall, but the Citadel Outlets can, and will, starting on Saturday, Nov. 8 at the center's 13th annual tree lighting.

The just-off-the-5-freeway shopping destination's 2014 tree hails from the Shasta-Trinity National Forest and will, per the Citadel, best Rockefeller Center's tree by some 40 feet in height. Now now. Let's not start any NYC-LA quibbling.

It's the holidays, and we do enough quibbling with our families about how high the den ceiling is, right? 

Of course, the Citadel has always been known for going the supersize sparkle-wow route. It's also home to the World's Biggest Bow, a bright topper that's so out-sized that it should probably star its own summer blockbuster franchise. Anything that takes over 4,000 cans of paint and primer to create seems huge enough to carry a film.

Take note, Hollywood.

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And the bigness continues: The Citadel is known for attracting headliners to its lightings -- Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, and Ariana Grande performed in past years -- and this year's party'll be led by country star Jana Kramer (with a bevy of other acts on the roster).

Feel free to think "phew," Christmas tree-purchasing families of SoCal, when you spy that 115-foot behemoth dominating the Citadel Outlets for the next few weeks. You don't have to pull that thing through your patio door and decorate it; rather, you get to stand outside and simply admire it, no family quibbling or ceiling measurements required.

What is asked, though, is that attendees of the Nov. 8 lighting ceremony show with an unwrapped toy to donate to Children's Hospital Los Angeles. That's an act easily completed and as sparkly as any giant Christmas tree.

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