[Photograph: NASA.gov]

What the astronauts eat as they watch Santa make his rounds:

Q: Do you take requests from the astronauts? For holidays, or just in general?

A: We can. For every month that the crewmember is in orbit they get what's called a bonus container and they can make special requests, if they have a special candy or cracker or cookie they want to take. But our standard menu includes a lot of traditional holiday foods. Smoked turkey, candied yams, green beans, freeze dried cornbread dressing. The Russian side has really good mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. So there are foods available for them to make a holiday menu, and if they know they're going to be in orbit at Christmas time they can take related things in a bonus box. And there might be a crew care package from families, too. Things like a certain kind of nut or hard candy that are part of their tradition on the ground.

Merry Christmas, serious eaters!