Chritsmas around the world: The International Space Station

By David Williamson

Not everyone gets to spend Christmas at home. Around the world soldiers, researchers and those who no longer could stay with their family for any reason will have quite a lonely time. My mind sometimes turns to those few people orbiting the planet right now in the International Space Station. They are the only people never to celebrate Christmas from Earth.

There are so many holidays around the winter solstice that it goes without saying that not everyone on the ISS celebrates Christmas. In the spirit of the collaborative nature of the project each holiday is given equal weighting. On their holiday the crew are relieved from duty for a day to call home and celebrate their holiday in their own way.

The first crew to man the station did so in November 2000. That year a tradition developed, a Christmas Dinner. The station has been continuously manned since then and so every year for the last 23 years the awkwardness of Christmas day has no longer been confined to Earth.

In 2016 the crew exchanged presents.  Everything went how you would expect. With the one twist being that presents were exchanged in micro gravity. Lose bits of wrapping paper are much more annoying in space as they are no longer confined by gravity.

 For people like me, who find themselves wishing that they could live in a time when humanity explores the stars, the precedents set by the crews of the International Space Station are the future happening before our eyes. Space is an endless winter night. I believe that there is something mystical about it and humanities’ continued exploration of it. So whilst you may not be able to hear anyone scream in space, there’s a chance you will hear people singing.

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David Williamson is the Editor of Writer Content at the Scoop