With more passengers expected to exceed last year’s total of 8.2 million to pass through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport this month, and an anticipated total of more than 100 million passengers in 2016, the airport seized the moment to launch its Winter Wonderland theme for the Christmas season.
As Atlanta’s stature has grown as an international hub, Alrene Barr, the airport’s director of international business, didn’t forget to include the airport’s role in helping the city to become a destination for overseas visitors.
“As only the busiest airport in the world can do,” she noted in her Facebook posting, “we’ve turned the holiday season into a truly Global Winter Wonderland, one filled with the special sights and sounds of the season.”
And she got a helping hand from Atlanta’s Consular Corps composed of more than 70 professional diplomats, honorary consuls and trade officials representing countries around the world who have played a critical role in helping the city gain in stature as a global destination.
More than a dozen of the international representatives participated in the lighting of the towering Christmas tree in the airport’s domestic terminal atrium on Nov. 29.
Each diplomatic guest individually added an ornament from their country as holiday carolers, employees, volunteers and mascots of Atlanta-based athletic teams and businesses looked on, kicking off a monthlong celebration of the holiday season.
Rafael Bernal, deputy consul general of the Consulate General of Mexico, told Global Atlanta that the opening ceremony “was full of joy, color and the most important part of this event was the real sense of understanding and fraternity among the hosts, the participants and the attendees.”
The Winter Wonderland theme has been extended throughout the airport with a variety of festivities and holiday music. The global theme is especially evident in the Maynard H. Jackson International Terminal where 12 trees have been installed with decorations from Consular Corps representatives.
Each of the 12 trees provided by the airport were festooned with the ornaments representative of each of the following countries: Argentina, Bahamas, Canada, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Lithuania, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
The authenticity of the ornaments was underscored by Roma Klicius, the honorary consul of Lithuania, who told Global Atlanta that those on her country’s tree had been made in Atlanta by a Lithuanian lady who had them donated to the consulate upon her death.
“Traditionally the ornaments were made a straw and were very fragile,” Dr. Klicius added, “so she made them out of plastic instead with the original technique.”
The traditional methods, however, have not been totally abandoned. Sylvia Aniuliene and Sarune Stankeviciene, native Lithuanians living in the Atlanta area, contributed several ornaments that they made from straw.
The airport is not promoting holiday cheer just through decorations. Travelers who have to unwrap their Christmas gifts to pass through security will be assisted in rewrapping them once they have passed through the check points.
Nor is the airport limiting its outreach to the Consular Corps just in the Christmas season. Ms. Barr told Global Atlanta that it has launched an initiative that will stretch throughout the year.
The first event took place on July 4th with the theme “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Flying,” when members of the Consular Corps provided letters from their governments congratulating the U.S. on its birthday and donating floral arrangements.
The next celebration is to take place on Valentine’s Day with the theme of “Spreading Love Around the World.”
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