Airport will celebrate winter, but not Christmas

Out with the Christmas trees, in with the snowy birches.

The Port of Seattle revealed the first glimpse of its Sea-Tac Airport holiday decorations Thursday -- a grove of luminous birches up to 30 feet high and hung with crystals and mirrors to reflect colored, low-energy lights emanating from within piles of Dacron snow.

That choice was recommended by a panel formed after a controversial Port of Seattle Commission decision in December to remove Sea-Tac's 17 red-ribboned Christmas trees in the middle of the night.

"What I was hoping for was something that was cheerful and evocative of the holiday spirit, and as much to do with nature and evergreen trees as they could," Commissioner Pat Davis said. "We wanted to move forward without something that would get us back into any sort of controversy, and I think it is very creative. I hope the public likes it -- it will take a while to get used to."

Above the trees will be a spiraling flock of migrating birds cut out of foam. Every once in a while, non-toxic snow will fall over the forest to the sound of wind chimes, joining the hubbub of Sea-Tac's busy holiday travel season from the forest's location at the south end of the main terminal, in the international arrivals hall.

Once the eye has adjusted to the changing lights, the snowfall and the strangeness of seeing a winter scene re-created indoors, the most noticeable aspect of the new holiday decorations will be their lack of religious symbols.

The port was slammed after last year's tree removal made international news; the port's five elected commissioners said they were given little time by staff to react to the threat of a lawsuit by Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky, who wanted to see an 8-foot-tall menorah erected alongside the largest of the Christmas trees.

The port defended its decision by saying its lawyers believed that putting up a menorah would have invited other religious groups to clamor for their own symbols' inclusion. Besides, they said, their first obligation during the holiday season at Sea-Tac is to assure that passengers can move throughout the terminals.

Bogomilsky said he was horrified by the decision, which spurred anti-Semitism and hurtful cross-cultural accusations. About a week after the much-maligned removal of the trees, which had been present at SeaTac during the holidays for more than 25 years, the port put them back.

The cause for the sudden reversal? Bogomilsky told port officials that his organization, the Northwest Friends of Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic Orthodox group, was not going to sue. His intent was never to demand that the Christmas decorations be taken down, he said.

Bogomilsky could not be reached for comment Thursday

In April, the port commission convened a 12-member holiday decorations advisory committee of religious, academic, legal and business leaders. In July, the panel called for decorations that would "reflect the Pacific Northwest environment and our diverse community, and convey universal values, such as peace and harmony."

		Andy Rogers / P-I
	Catherine Holmes with Displaymaker Productions attaches crystal icicles and mirrors to a birch branch for the airport's winter display.

Lights and colors and fabrics were permissible, as were trees that wouldn't stick out in a Northwestern forest; while firs and cedars and spruces fit that bill, "the very traditional single, iconic Christmas tree is not one of the areas we will be exploring," port Aviation Director Mark Reis said at the time. The committee also recommended that no specific religious symbols be used.

Displaymaker Productions -- a Seattle display and events company responsible for Bellevue's Snowflake Lane -- plans to hang iconic Washington scenes backlit by lights above the ticketing counters.

The installation should begin Nov. 9. The display, which will have cost $300,000 to produce and install, will be taken down around mid-February. It will be repeated each holiday season for at least the next eight years, with minor changes and additions as needed.

It is being assembled in a South Seattle warehouse, where rows of drummer boys and a Santa's workshop await their turn in the spotlight at Snowflake Lane.

Running south from the north end of the ticketing area will be 6-foot-wide, 10-foot-tall images of the Lime Kiln lighthouse on San Juan Island, a ferry crossing Elliott Bay with views of the Olympic Mountains, the Seattle skyline with the Space Needle, the forested sides and snowy caps of the Cascade Range and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Finally, a 12-foot tall by 30-foot wide image of Mount Rainier will face the forest, which will be made with recycled cardboard trunks covered with recycled ash cement "bark" and real birch branches.

Superimposed on each photo -- printed with water-based ink on recyclable hanging fabric topped with a birch branch -- are flocks of migrating birds which look somewhat like snow geese. Another collection of birch trees will be put above the escalators to baggage claim -- this one without the snow and the chimes.

Randy Trostle, the president and creative director of Displaymaker, said that snowfall represents peace to him, while the chimes evoke harmony. The birds “symbolize the concept of migration because that’s what happens during the holidays. It’s the migration of people and cultures coming together in the airport.”

LAST YEAR'S CHRISTMAS CONTROVERSY

When a Seattle rabbi threatened to sue if a menorah wasn't placed beside Christmas trees at Sea-Tac Airport, the port yanked the trees. An uproar ensued, and the rabbi withdrew his threat, saying he didn't want the trees removed, just a menorah added. The port put the trees back two weeks before Christmas.

THIS YEAR'S HOLIDAY DECOR

The trees that will replace the traditional Christmas tree displays at the airport this season are described as snowy birches constructed of recycled cardboard, ash cement and real birch branches. There will be no religious symbols.