In June of 2024, two NASA astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, arrived at the International Space Station for what was supposed to be an eight day excursion. On December 22nd, after six months and countless space-related mishaps later, Williams and Wilmore found themselves staying aboard the ISS for an additional two months.

The two found themselves aboard the International Space Station for Christmas.

Williams, 59, and Mr. Wilmore, 61, initially arrived at the ISS from a test flight of the Boeing Starliner, a ship which was supposed to be a commercial option for carrying passengers to and from the station. Williams and Wilmore were also scheduled to return to Earth via the same ship, although the Boeing Starliner underwent a series of malfunctions.

This eventually prompted NASA to send the spaceship back to Earth uncrewed, leaving the two astronauts stranded up in the ISS until another spaceship could ferry them back home.

After a few months, Williams and Wilmore were forced to celebrate Christmas up in space, which is a bit different from the holiday on the blue marble. Lacking things like Christmas trees, ornaments, family members, and gravity, astronauts had to improvise celebrating Christmas traditions.

The tradition of celebrating Christmas in the endless void began in 1968. Astronauts aboard the Apollo 8 read verses from the Book of Genesis, while broadcasting a video of the moon to around one billion viewers.

Now, those aboard the ISS enjoy the view of Earth from the station and call their family and friends. This year, the crew has managed to create a reindeer out of stowage bags and brown industrial clips. There was a similar effort in 1973, in which a Christmas tree was made out of leftover food containers and cardboard cutouts.

The astronauts up in the ISS also hosted a cookie-decorating contest with the staff at Mission Control Center in Houston. Unfortunately for the Mission Control Center staff, the astronauts abused their zero gravity advantage and realized that there were a lot more ways to play with icing without downward attraction.

“It opened up a whole new dimension, quite literally,” remarked Nick Hague, an astronaut aboard the ISS, “…with layer upon layer of icing,”

A SpaceX rocket has been scheduled to bring down Williams and Wilford sometime in March.