Which Christmas carol was performed in space by the Gemini 6 astronauts in 1965?

The Christmas carol performed in space by the Gemini 6 astronauts in 1965 was “Jingle Bells.”

On December 16, 1965, astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford made the playful musical appearance during the Gemini 6A mission. They reported seeing an object resembling a satellite with a red suit, clearly joking about Santa Claus, before Schirra played “Jingle Bells” on a small harmonica while Stafford shook a set of bells.

The performance was brief, but it became a landmark in popular culture and in spaceflight history. Gemini 6A had rendezvoused with Gemini 7, and the two spacecraft conducted the first crewed space rendezvous. The instruments were smuggled aboard in a sleeve and a sock, making the stunt possible without adding a formal mission objective.

“Jingle Bells” is sometimes assumed to be exclusively a Christmas song, but it was originally published in 1857 as “The One Horse Open Sleigh.” Its association with Christmas developed later, helping make the Gemini performance instantly recognizable.