They may not be home for Christmas, but the men and women orbiting hundreds of miles apart from the rest of humanity aren’t letting that dampen their holiday spirit. Astronauts in the International Space Station still deck the halls with stockings and mini Christmas trees, don their favorite festive apparel, and share a proper (vacuum-packaged) holiday dinner. As Space Commander Dan Burbank so eloquently stated in a December 2011 video from the ISS, “our planet is so beautiful, peaceful, and serene when you look at it from space- the most beautiful holiday card you could imagine.”

Scott Kelly celebrating an ISS Christmas in 2010. Image credit: NASA via Wikimedia Commons(Public Domain)