Salt Lake City International Airport's concourses and terminals are decorated for the holidays

Salt Lake City – Salt Lake City International Airport welcomes local and international visitors throughout the holidays. One thing travelers definitely notice is how festive this time of year is.

As it turns out, an entire team is dedicated to bringing the airport to life. An airport's mission is to decorate the halls — all of them.

A fan favorite decoration is the famous polar bear where over 100 selfies are taken a day.

“The grounds, the terminal buildings, all around,” said airport maintenance manager David Tingey.

As a maintenance manager, Tinggi covers every inch of the terminal's 2.8 million square feet of space.

Before visitors head into the airport transformed for the holidays, Tingi and his 14-person holiday decorating team work to bring the holiday spirit to life. Behind the scenes, the team thoughtfully placed outlets to hang lights and paint.

Tingi and his team are growing 1,600 poinsettias to fill the entire airport with festive colors. The flowers grow in their own greenhouse.

“Plugs for this show up (arriving) at the end of July. We pot it right away and start that whole process. The group that takes care of this really prides itself on putting out a quality product,” Tingay said. “These have been like their children for the last six months.”

Poinsettias – spanning seven to eight varieties – will be flown to the airport for decoration. After Thanksgiving they will be ready to add airport wreaths, snowflakes, garlands and more.

“It's a big job!” Tinge told KSL-TV.

Down the road from the airport is a warehouse where they keep all their holiday decorations. Bits and pieces of holiday decor go up throughout the season, and all the decorating goes up on Black Friday.

But the rush never stops.

“So, we've been looking at it all year, you know,” Tingey said. “As soon as the decorations come out around the first of January, we're looking to order our poinsettias for next year. But even during that time, we need to get our order in for any decorations that need to be replaced, anything damaged, or any additions.”

He said the new holiday decor addition is a giant tree in the newly opened B concourse.