The magic of Christmas descends on Brussels Airport courtesy of two original collaborative Christmas trees

The countdown to Christmas has begun : only ten more days to go before the Season’s festivities kick off! And, same as each year, Brussels Airport is keen to bid its passengers a warm welcome by creating a magical atmosphere in the terminal. The strange year we have witnessed has had a profound impact on our industry as well as on the entire airport community. Which is why Brussels Airport has decided to train the spotlight on our partners by putting up two “collaborative” Christmas trees, created in the spirit of the circular economy.  

As 2021 badly affected the aviation industry, Brussels Airport was eager to celebrate the festive season with an original, collaborative and above all circular Christmas tree. “The holiday season is the perfect time to ramp up our ambitions in terms of the circular economy and to highlight our teamwork, our customer-centred approach and our commitment, whilst remaining entirely in keeping with the festive spirit”, explains Brussels Airport Company CEO Arnaud Feist. “That is how we came up with the idea of a “collaborative” Christmas tree in the true sense of the word: a tree created with the help of some fifteen of Brussels Airport’s partners, intended to give a new use to some of Brussels Airport’s everyday objects.” 

The two Christmas trees, an impressive 5.5 metres in height and set up in the Departures hall on either side of the flight information board, are entirely made of recycled and recovered materials from the airport community. They have been built as an engaging “installation” which symbolically reaffirms the importance of circularity and collaboration at Brussels Airport. Materials deriving from the airport’s partners were used in unconventional ways to create delightful and festive decorations certain to warm the hearts of passengers, visitors and staff alike. No fewer than 2,000 items of widely varying description recovered by our partners and found around Brussels Airport make up the decorations of this exceptional and original Christmas tree: cups, tarpaulins cut into ribbons, tote bags, plastic bags, etc.  

These Christmas trees perfectly fit in with the rest of the festive decorations in the terminal. In all, over 200 Christmas trees were set up across the terminal, decorated with thousands of baubles and over   5km of string lights with over a million of LED lights.  

The Christmas trees have been twinkling and sparkling in the departures hall since 23 November and are set to remain in place until the New Year.  

We have made a video to accompany these original creations, to highlight the special way in which the Christmas trees were made: End-of-year behind the scenes at Brussels Airport - YouTube 

The campaign video can be viewed here: End of Year at Brussels Airport