[Version française sur le site de La Recherche]
What makes you feel like Christmas is coming? Christmas lights in the streets? Music and advertisements? Chaos in shopping malls? Markets with smells of gingerbread and hot wine ? Days getting shorter? For me, it is the date at the bottom right corner of my computer screen.
In our dome, the closest we have to Christmas lights is the strip of LEDs we installed because, as days get shorter, our solar panels cannot power the main lights. Music and advertisements do not reach us, as we do not have radio or magazines, or even Internet access. There is of course no mall or market, and the smell of the food we rehydrate does not really evoke Christmas. And as we are never outside, except for occasional EVAs, we do not really sense that days are getting shorter – besides the fact that we are generating little solar-based power.
However, in a mission where the crew is isolated for a long period of time, celebrating holidays is important to break monotony, tighten the bonds between crewmates and boost the crew’s morale. It is coming at the right time, as some of my crewmates start looking a bit tired and tense. So, even though we are away from our families, we are going to celebrate Christmas.
A few days ago, we set up a Christmas tree. Okay, a plastic tree that barely reaches my knee, but a tree anyway. We found it in a container in the Sea Can and decorated it with chocolate candies hung with ribbons, and with duct tape stars.
As there is no shop around here, most of my crewmates are crafting presents. At least, that’s what I imagine when they spend hours in their rooms and hide whatever they were working on when someone comes in. But as I have the crafting skills of a 5-year-old, I brought present and have been hiding them in my room for months.
I don’t know how exactly we’re going to celebrate, as traditions differ in our different cultures. We brought it up, but each of us ended up telling the others about their own way of doing it. That was very interesting but we did not take any decision.
What is certain is that we will cook a festive meal, as we did for Thanksgiving. We have cubes of dehydrated turkey, which we will rehydrate and amalgamate to make turkey-shaped turkey meat. And our tomato plant, a dwarf variety developed for spaceflight and growing in a hydroponic setup, is giving its first cherry tomatoes. Luckily, they will be ready just in time. We’ll have at most half a cherry tomato per person but trust me, after 4 months in here, it will be much appreciated.
We plan to have group activities, games for instance. The hardest part of it will be to prevent everyone from working. That’s what we had in mind for Thanksgiving, but dome life took over and most of us got back to urgent tasks right after dinner. Let’s hope that we’ll be better at it this time, and that we can take a full day off – for the first time since the beginning of the mission.
I will probably not post again by then so… Merry Christmas!
Walking on Red Dust 
Merry Christmas to all of you from England 🙂
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Merry Christmas Sean!
I will forward your wishes to the others when they come downstairs. Since yesterday the weather is dark and we cannot generate much power, so we had to turn off the heater. The others are hiding in their rooms, wrapped in blankets.
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That sounds uncomfortable! But you are all more than capable of surviving a difficult winter. Is there anyway you can make a fire (perhaps outside)?
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It’s allright, we have cozy blankets to wrap ourselves in.
A fire would be pleasant, but as we cannot go outside without a spacesuit and don’t want to burn the dome or fill it with smoke, we can’t. And from a simulation point of view: a fire would consume too much oxygen. But if it becomes a matter or life or death, we’ll follow your suggestion 🙂
We’re not there yet, fortunately.
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Joyeux Noël Cyprien, alors que les rues de Paris s’illuminent et que les vitrines s’animent difficile d’imaginer que certains vont le passer autour d’une dinde réhydratée et reconstruite !
Passez de joyeuses fêtes
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Merci Justine ! Joyeux Noël à toi aussi.
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Merry Christmas from PEI, Canada. I think your little tree looks perfect 🙂
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Thanks Kristine! Yes, our tree is perfect. At least to us. It is the only tree we’ve seen in 4 months, though, which might confer a slight advantage on it. But hey, who cares?
Merry Christmas to you too!
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Tous mes voeux de prospérité au plant de tomates, et à toute l’équipe, bonnes fêtes depuis Boston !
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Merci, je transmettrai au plant de tomate (et au reste de l’équipage).
Bonnes fêtes !
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Joyeux Noël à vous tous ! Merci de partager ses préparatifs.
J’espère que l’ambiance vous réchauffera 😉
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*ces (^^’)
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Joyeux Noël Laurence ! Merci pour votre message, c’est sympa.
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Joyeux Noël Cyprien! Je te passe tous mes meilleurs vœux de bonheur !!! ça me fait toujours autant plaisir de te lire et avoir de tes nouvelles 🙂 Bon courage
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Hey, Yosra ! Ça me fait plaisir de te lire. Je te souhaite un super Noël à toi aussi ! On se voit dans 8 mois.
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