A Look At Christmas Celebrations At The International Space Station

The crew at the International Space Station (ISS) shared snippets of their Christmas celebration from space. Currently, the team of Expedition 70, a long-duration space mission consisting of astronauts from multiple countries, is at ISS. As per Space.com, the current crew at ISS consists of USA’s Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, Andreas Mogensen from Denmark, Satoshi Furukawa from Japan, and Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolai Chub from Russia.

Jasmin Moghbeli shared multiple pictures of her fellow astronauts dressed in Santa hats on Instagram and wrote, “Merry Christmas from the ISS! While I especially miss my friends and family back home this time of year, I wouldn’t trade the unique memories I’m making with my space family. We have found little ways to make the holidays feel like the holidays up here. Later today, we will all share a holiday meal and decorate cookies together.”

A post shared by Jasmin Moghbeli (@astrojaws)

Andreas Mogensen, of the European Space Agency, also shared a photo of himself dressed in a red shirt and Santa hat. He wrote, “Greetings from the International Space Station! As we orbit high above Earth, I want to send warm wishes to all of you down on Earth on this special day. Whether you’re celebrating Christmas or simply enjoying the festive spirit, may this special time bring you joy with your family and friends. Here on the Space Station, we have the 25th of December off to celebrate Christmas, where we share special food, relax, and open packages from our families that came up with the last cargo vehicle. As we mark this day in space, may you have a happy holiday season.”

A post shared by Andreas Mogensen (@astro_andreas)

Astronaut Loral O’Hara shared a long post on X about the Expedition 70 mission and mentioned, “Christmas Day was peaceful – a quiet morning of breakfast and some music by the tree to start, Christmas cookie decorating and a big midday feast later. Getting to share the holiday with my crewmates was both special and fun, as was chatting with the team in Mission Control Center, who gave up their own holiday weekends to support us.”

Earlier in December Jasmin Moghbeli shared Hanukkah wishes from ISS. Moghbeli posted a video that showed her spinning a dreidel in zero gravity as she put up a cutout of a menorah onto a window at the space station. She wrote, “Happy Hanukkah from the Space_Station!! Real candles are not allowed!” The dreidel is a four-sided spinning top. It is played during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. This year, Hanukkah was celebrated from December 7 through December 15.

Moghbeli spoke to The Times of Israel about her space festivities and said, “In my household, we celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah, so I’ve brought some items for both to celebrate with my family. I’ve got a Christmas ornament with a picture of the four of us together and also my husband and little girls helped make a felt menorah with lights for each night that I can pin on to celebrate with them.”