International Space Station (ISS) astronauts may be far from home and their loved ones, but this does not stop them from celebrating Christmas. 

Aboard the ISS, astronauts celebrated Christmas in a truly out-of-this-world fashion, sending holiday wishes and festive cheer down to Earth in a video downlinked on December 18, 2023.

NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara, along with the ISS Expedition 70 commander Andreas Mogensen from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Satoshi Furukawa from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), shared their experiences of spending the holidays away from Earth while donning red and green Santa hats in the greetings video.

This holiday season, the ISS astronauts offered a unique perspective on celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year's in the microgravity environment of space.

Their festive video aims to bring a touch of holiday spirit to people on Earth and shed light on the distinctive traditions astronauts have developed over the years for these special occasions.

Celebrating Christmas in Space Through the Years

The ISS has a history of celebrating holidays in space, dating back to the space program's early years. The Apollo 8 astronauts, namely Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, and William A. Anders, were the first crew to spend Christmas in space in December 1968.

They celebrated the holiday while orbiting the Moon, a historic moment that captivated audiences worldwide. Over the years, as space missions became more frequent and extended, holidays in space became more commonplace.

During Skylab 4's 84-day record-setting mission in 1973 and 1974, astronauts Gerald P. Carr, William R. Pogue, and Edward G. Gibson celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's in space.

They crafted a makeshift Christmas tree from leftover food containers, adorned it with colored decals, and crowned it with a comet-shaped cardboard cutout. The crew even ventured out on a spacewalk on Christmas Day to change film canisters and observe Comet Kohoutek.

In the Soviet era, Yuri V. Romanenko and Georgi M. Grechko welcomed the new year aboard the Salyut-6 space station during their 96-day mission in 1977 and 1978. They marked the occasion with a televised toast to the new year.

Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, found its way to space during the STS-61 Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission in 1993. NASA astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman celebrated the holiday by spinning a dreidel and having a traveling menorah onboard the space shuttle.

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First Space Shuttle Christmas

The crew of STS-103, another Hubble Space Telescope repair mission, marked the first space shuttle Christmas in 1999 aboard Discovery.

After successfully repairing the telescope, the astronauts had duck foie gras on Mexican tortillas, cassoulet, and salted pork with lentils for their Christmas dinner.

The holiday celebrations in space continue to evolve, with the most recent Expedition 68 crew members recording a holiday message for people on Earth in 2022. 

This ongoing tradition reflects the astronauts' resilience, creativity, and camaraderie as they find ways to bring the holiday spirit to the unique environment of the International Space Station.

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