Christmas may look a bit different 400 km above Earth, but there is no shortage of festive spirit. ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer shares a glimpse of the holiday season on the International Space Station from cookie decorating to a floating ‘Elf on the Shelf’, Santa hats and celebratory socks.

Part of the fun of an international crew is the opportunity to share cultures and traditions in orbit. This Christmas Matthias joined his NASA colleagues for a Christmas cookie decorating competition, using colourful icing that arrived on the latest SpaceX cargo Dragon spacecraft. The astronauts’ efforts were judged by flight controllers in International Space Station control centres around the world.

Among the Christmas cookies created by the crew were the ISS in 3D, a snowman, Santa, the view from the Cupola and even the James Webb Telescope. Though they had as many successes as failures, Matthias describes it as good fun, providing a chance to relax and unwind from their regular busy space schedule.

Matthias was launched to the International Space Station for his Cosmic Kiss mission as part of Crew-3 at 02:03 GMT/03:03 CET Thursday 11 November 2021 and will live and work in orbit for approximately six months. Find out more about his mission and activities in space on the ESA mission website. 

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