Just like Thanksgiving, South Pole Station goes all out for Christmas (especially the galley).  In the lead up, the Christmas tree comes out and people get excited (partially because the plane schedule is so fraught over the holidays, and everyone wants to make sure that they get out on time).  I volunteered to help bake Christmas cookies – we had to miss trivia, but we made more than 600 cookies, including 148 sugar cookies.

Other people compete to make the centerpiece gingerbread house, and they were all displayed for several days so that everyone could vote on them.  Next to the tree in the galley.  I voted for the traditional one and the station shaped one.  It was a very close race in the end.

When we sat down to dinner, just like Thanksgiving, there was a delicious menu which encouraged having eyes much bigger than your stomach.  All sort of meats and Christmas goodies were served.  And then there was dessert.

Dessert included a Yule log, various pie, a white chocolate tart, and all of the cookies we baked.  The sugar cookies had icing too.  The best cookie in my opinion was the salted chocolate chip.  After dinner, many people went sledding down one of the large hills – I was too full and missed out.  The festivities didn’t end there though. 

Christmas day and Christmas eve are both days off at the pole (just like New Year’s eve and New Year’s day), but Christmas day is the day with the race around the world.  The Race around the world is a 2 mile run which goes around the ceremonial and the geographic south pole (and goes out into the dark sector near icecube to pad the distance).  People have all sorts of fun dressing up, and there is the “party barge,” which is pulled down the course at the end for everyone who just wants to relax.  People touring the pole form the nearby camp come to participate too.

While I was sad to miss Christmas back with my family, I was really happy with what we got to do down here.