How would a Martian colony be able to celebrate Christmas?

Question

Accept that we had a reason to go to Mars, managed to build a colony there, and what we found on Mars is valuable enough to ship back to Earth. There is now a self sustainable colony living under the domes, all made possible because we found out how to make water out of rocks and ice on Mars, and regular cargo ship transfers from Mars to Earth.

The colony has been in existence for more than 20 years and now the colonists have to deal with yet one more thing: Children and Christmas.

• Does Santa make it from Earth's North Pole to Mars in time when we know that cargo supply ship makes it in half a year?
• Do the reindeer survive in space?
• Does Santa survive in space?
• Will letters to Santa make it physically to Earth if we send them back on cargo ship?

Given the fact that Sol (=Mars day) duration is longer, and Mars year is also bit longer, when to celebrate Christmas?

And ultimately, Christmas started as Pagan festival of winter end. Would it make more sense to celebrate, say, dust-storm end on Mars?

P.S.: I know this question is on the edge of "too broad" and "opinion based", so if you feel like it should not be here, let me know, and I will remove it

Answer 1

Since Santa's death fortress is based on the North Pole of Neptune, he shouldn't have too much trouble making it to Mars. He and all of his reindeer are robotic, so they won't have any trouble surviving in space.

I imagine that Santa probably wouldn't want to show up the same night as he does on Earth, since it takes time to give presents to all the good girls and boys and punish the naughty with extreme prejudice. (Hint: everyone was naughty.) Then again, he may be able to build a Martian Santa in his workshop to go to Mars in his place and spread holiday cheer and nerve gas.

I also imagine that if fuel to get to Mars is expensive, all of the winter holidays will be combined into one so he can carpool with Kwanzabot and the Chanukah Zombie.

Answer 2

Fun question!

I would expect at the start that Christmas would be celebrated when it happens back on Earth. As a species we'd all celebrate it at the same time (relatively). Meaning that Martians would likely celebrate it twice a (Martian) year. However, what happens as the colony ages and becomes more Martian things will likely change.

Some of the change would depend on if those on Mars keep the Earth calendar. Which I'm sure it would take more than 20 years to go away. But if there are seasons on Mars then the locals will have a Martian calendar to mark these events, if there isn't much, then likely they would space out holidays around the year to make merry.

For Christmas to stay 'as is' would likely require a reasonable sized bunch of Christians in the mix, but the idea of a season of gift giving would likely stay.

Now on to Santa.

Most likely Santa would move from Earth to one of the moons in the solar system, maybe one around Jupiter (Europa would be an excellent choice!). This way he can still 'be there watching for naughty and nice' but not be playing favorites to one group or another. He already has control of time and space so adding in another planet shouldn't be too hard. .

Of course the reindeer will survive the travels, they are obviously multidimensional beings and don't actually travel between locations so much as shift to the next house on the list!

Answer 3

It depends on the colonist's world view.

Capitalist

can we do it more often? what maximizes profits?

Pagan

It should be during the winter solstice.

Catholic/Neo-pagan

approximately during the winter solstice is fine, just pick a date that works (by council decision).

Lutheran

December 25 as it is on earth. No exceptions.

Revivalist

If we contemplate the Hebrew calender, and take into account the barley harvest ...

Answer 4

In the southern hemisphere, for example in Australia, Christmas is celebrated in the summer. It wasn't moved to winter solstice. So I'd expect it to be the same on Mars. They would just use Earth calendar.

Also, Santa Claus is not a part of Christmas in most Christian countries. In many parts of Germany for example, the children are told that Jesus (the Christkind) brings the presents on December 24 (not December 25), while Santa Claus (St. Nikolaus) delivers his gifts on December 6.

But maybe they need to adjust their Lord's Prayer: "Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven" should become "Thy will be done, on Mars as it is in Heaven". :-)

Answer 5

Your question assumes that most of these new Martians are Christian in heritage and American or British in stock which, at least to me, seems questionable. Most of the world isn't Christian, and most of the Christian world does not celebrate Santa Claus.

As far as timing is concerned, I believe that it would likely be normalized to Earth time. Catholics have a tendency towards normalization, and the Orthodox are so rooted in tradition that they haven't adopted the Gregorian Calendar yet (and so Santa gets a two(?) week holiday between completing his different tasks). I see it likely that at most the Pope would need to issue an edict which basically standardizes practices to earth. For non-practicing or non-Christian in heritage, well, I think that if they celebrate Christmas they will follow suit. That is unless some culturally significant event happens which diverts the celebration to some other day.

Now, from a what-do-we-tell-the-children perspective, it might be possible to say that "Santa and his helpers deliver" or simply "Santa is magic/a miracle", but I don't really think that much further explanation is needed. After all, a clever child today might ask "how can Santa travel so fast as to reach every home?" and the only real answer is, "He can't. If Santa were really traveling so fast, he would be dead."

I will say that I think that a colony on Mars would end the traditional letter to Santa, but I don't think that is something which is held too dearly in mosts' hearts. And anyway, snail-mail is not the only way to get your list to St. Nick.

Answer 6

Considering that a Mars colony would be mostly self-sufficient and have few contact with Earth, it would soon develop its own culture with its own holidays based on the Martian calendar.

The earth calendar is based on day-cycles and season-cycle as they occur on Earth, because these have a large impact on our daily life. But on Mars, the current light conditions and temperature on Earth are completely irrelevant. It is much more imporatant to pay attention to the Martian day-cycle and season-cycle. That means that Martian settlers would soon lose their attachment to the Earth calendar and would instead get attached to a date- and time-keeping which is based on Martian days and years.

Regular celebrations would then also be scheduled according to the Martian calendar. So they would likely celebrate (their equivalent to?) Christmas every 668 mars-days (~686 earth-days).

Answer 7

I'm not sure if artificial holidays will maintain themselves, but since you are working in a short time frame (20 years is same generation) then most definately, Santa will live on. If you spanned the question to several generations, local mars tradition would start to arise. They may align with Earth holidays (this is due to convenience, kinda how the Canadian 'Family day' holiday aligns with 'Presidents day' in the US'), but they'll start to take on a local twist once you have people who never knew life on Earth start being the primary constituents of Mars.

Since your questions revolves around 20 years...then of course, colonists won't be quick to give up their ties to Earth and will readily celebrate holidays in line with the day it occurs on Earth. As it sits, Santa has barely milliseconds at each child's house before moving on and is a fantastical wonder, not a statement of fact. Websites tracking his 'movements' around Earth during Christmas eve (supposed 'satellite' shots of the jolly man) are out there...I can see someone creating a 'radar journy' of Santa's trek from Earth to Mars after his job on earth is done pretty readily as well.

Answer 8

Isaac Asimov wrote a great short story about Christmas on Ganymede which is not only fun with the Earthmen acting out the mythology because the natives they are trying to get along with thought it was some very important Earth thing, but has a twist at the end: the natives think it happens every orbit around Jupiper, or once a week!

In other parts of the world, Santa (if he is used at all) doesn't always live at the north pole, though that has spread in parallel since TV. So some variation might be more realistic. Also, look how fast the mythology has grown and changed: Santa's red suit came from Coca Cola (it was green before); the appearance drawn by cartoonist Nast; the Visit poem in 1823; Rudolph was invented in 1939 and went viral in 1949. My parents celebrated Christmas for several years before Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer even existed.

So, the children born on Mars will know the myth however their parents present it to them. The smart folks in the first wave will invent their own spin on things, toung in cheek, to fit their own culture. The youngest kids won't understand logistics etc but have their small and simple world model to work with.

Point is, it can change rapidly like fashion, not slow like more serious issues that more stricly follow their parents' way but for small mutations.

Answer 9

Does Santa make it from Earth's North Pole to Mars in time when we know that cargo supply ship makes it in half a year?

Of course! To cover each time zone fully on Earth within one midnight hour, place every gift, etc., Santa must be able to travel faster than the speed of light and slower to stop and place the gifts: which we know to be impossible with physics. Therefore he is dropping in and out of an alternative universe(s) on Christmas Eve. Our physical space doesn't matter much, so it could be Mars or wherever.

Do the reindeer survive in space?

In order to survive the speeds, temperatures, and stresses of their current tasks, they most certainly have the biology to survive in space.

Does Santa survive in space?

Same as above.

Will letters to Santa make it physically to Earth if we send them back on cargo ship?

They just need to be sent back in time to reach before Earth's December 25!

And actually, given the fact that Sol (=Mars day) duration is longer, and Mars year is also bit longer, when to celebrate Christmas?

I live in the Middle East, and celebrate Christmas when my family or home-town does. Others celebrate it when their particular cultural hearth celebrates it (for example, Eastern Orthodox celebrate it on the date (Jan 7?) on Earth; I would guess that if it's Earth Dec 25, but Mars MNovemeber 49th (or whatever), it would be celebrated on MNovember 49th.

And ultimately, Christmas started as Pagan festival of winter end. Would it make more sense to celebrate, say, dust-storm end on Mars?

Australians celebrate it on the 25th of December even though it's the middle of Summer. So I think Martians would celebrate it on Earth's 25th of December as well. They get two Christmaes a year! Each 365(ish) days apart, though.

Enjoy!

Answer 10

As you said it is very broad question.
I think it will all depends at several factors. As long as New Martians will be using Earth calendar, Commander Santa will be visiting Mars in his big spaceship piloted by Rudolph The Reindeer

But after several decades, colonies will have their own holidays, so who knows, maybe where will be no Xmas anymore, and gifts will be dropped by ET?

Answer 11

In my experience, peoples tend to accumulate holidays, very few go away. Arbor day will probably fall by the wayside but despite the fact that (to my knowledge) the entire world uses the Gregorian calendar on a day-to-day basis, we still celebrate Chinese New Year, Rosh Hashanah and in Russia, 'Old New Year'.

Mars will certainly have its own holidays, e.g. Diaspora Day to celebrate when the first permanent human colony landed, Federation Day, when the first Martian Constitution is ratified. These will likely follow a Martian calendar and recur every 668 Martian days.

But Earthly holidays will follow Earthly dates. Chinese New Year will still occur based on the Lunar calendar (which will make no sense to a second generation Martian, let me tell you), if the 20 year old settlement is primarily American, they will celebrate Labor Day based on Earth's day and time, and regardless of origin, Christmas will be December 25th back home.

As far as the logistics go, I think the family will be sitting around an artificial tree and electric heater (no open flames!) typing up an email to Santa. I bet that the corporations sponsoring these fledgeling colonies (likely more than one, and yes, still fledgeling after a mere 20 years) will ensure that Santa's presence (presents?) is felt.

Santa will probably have to ditch the reindeer though. I bet he gets an upgrade with his sleigh acting more like a Tardis. Santa has had to evolve with the times. We have a gas fireplace at home, and therefore no chimney, but Santa still finds his way in. He has thus far avoided setting off our security system in doing so as well.

Answer 12

On Earth, the traditional Chinese and Jewish calendars have years which are sometimes 12 months long, and sometimes 13 months long, because instead of dividing the solar year into 12 parts to get a month, they use the unrelated cycle of the Moon's phases for the month. (This uses the Metonic cycle, where 19 years contain 12 years of 12 months, and 7 years of 13 months.)

So it's perfectly possible for colonists on Mars to use a calendar that, say, divides the year into 22 months some years, and into 23 months other years, on the same principle - with the Earth solar month of 1/12 of the Earth year used to define the length of the Martian month. Here, there would be a cycle of 7 Martian years, three of which are 22 months long, and four of which are 23 months long - at least as the first approximation; one would eventually have to add or take away a leap month to keep things in sync.

So they could celebrate Christmas every 12 months, and keep in sync with people on Earth. This would also simplify paychecks and rents and age qualifications for voting across the two planets.