World's largest crocheted Christmas tree made in Portugal

Dec. 23 (UPI) -- The organizers of a crochet project in Portugal said they may have broken a Guinness World Record when their crocheted Christmas tree reached more than 55 feet tall.

The Associação de Moradores Unidos da Apelação, a residents' group in Loures, Lisbon, said the project started as a means of providing social activities for elderly residents after two years of pandemic shut-downs, but the project soon grew to involve 70 people from ages 11 to 88.

"We never thought this project would be so successful. We initially thought of a small tree measuring 3-4 meters and then, as we realized that there would be many people involved, we advanced to a 17-meter [55.7-foot] tree and entered it in the Guinness Book of Records," project coordinator Catarina Canelas told the Gaudium Press.

The current Guinness World Record for tallest crochet sculpture (supported) is a 52-foot, 1.98-inch crocheted Christmas tree made in Ecuador in 2021.