Astronauts celebrate holidays 250 miles above Earth, together

For 25 years, the International Space Station has orbited Earth every 90 minutes with humans aboard—and they've marked every holiday the same way we do: by gathering, eating, and staying connected to home.

It's a small detail that says something larger. Yes, astronauts conduct experiments in microgravity and push the boundaries of what's possible in space. But they also wrap gifts that float through the modules, tape stockings to walls, and video call their families on Christmas Eve. They eat turkey and smoked salmon packed specially by NASA's Space Food Systems Laboratory in Houston, unwrap candies and hummus, and exchange small gifts before drifting off to sleep 17,500 miles per hour above the planet.

The traditions look familiar because they're meant to. Before each mission, crews work with nutritionists and food scientists to select menus that feel like home. Holiday Bulk Overwrapped Bags arrive on cargo launches timed to arrive before Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's—whatever matters to that crew. Decorations get improvised from excess hardware and cargo bags. A recent reindeer was crafted from leftover materials and newly delivered Santa hats.

What makes this remarkable isn't the novelty—it's the ordinariness of it. These aren't celebrations despite being in space. They're celebrations because humans are there, doing what humans do: marking time together, honoring what matters, staying tethered to the people they love.

Over a quarter century, crews from NASA, ESA, JAXA, and Roscosmos have gathered for these moments—Americans, Russians, Europeans, Japanese astronauts breaking bread together while the world turns beneath them. It's a quiet reminder that the space station is more than a laboratory. It's a home, orbiting.

As humanity ventures deeper into space, these moments matter. They anchor us—remind us that wherever we go, we bring ourselves with us.