Would you spend Christmas in Antarctica with 40,000,000 penguins for company?

Do they know it’s Christmas time at all? (Picture: KAHT/Jerome Viard /SWNS)

While most of the country will be gorging on miniature chocolates and Baileys, some will spend Christmas Day in a very different way.

December 25 is in the middle of summer in Antarctica, meaning the sun doesn’t set and weather conditions are the warmest and least hostile.

This means it is the best time of year for doing scientific research, and plenty of scientists will be spending the day there this year. It’s a bit far to sail back to Chile and then fly home just for the holidays, after all.

Nearly 300 people working for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) will be spending the festive season there, at five research stations, in the field, and on the RRS (Royal Research Ship) Sir David Attenborough.

What is an Antarctic Christmas like?

With an estimated penguin population of over 40 million, and only around 300 Brits spending the day there, humans will be outnumbered significantly.

In the absence of turkeys, they will not be allowed to ‘pick up a penguin’ for the dinner table, however – even if Captain Scott’s men did once dine on the bird’s stewed breast in red currant jelly with crystallised ginger and champagne.

Rothera Research Station on Adelaide island, Antarctica (Picture: Getty)

The 1959 Antarctic Treaty makes it illegal to harm or interfere in any way with a penguin or its eggs, so penguins are now off the menu.

Most obviously, people there are almost guaranteed a white Christmas.

Snowy mountains and icebergs out of the window will offer a breathtaking view, even if the research stations themselves were not built for aesthetics.

You wouldn’t have to go far for a snowball fight… if you had time, given that for many, it will be a standard working day.

On the white continent you can’t waste good weather conditions, so in the absence of blizzards and biting winds, scientists will carry on as normal.

At Rothera, the UK’s largest research station, marine divers will head into the bay to collect samples, a meteorological balloon will be launched, and pilots will fly to deploy or collect researchers and their teams from the deep field.

There will be celebrations, though, with the station decorated with tinsel and staff joining the annual Christmas Door Competition where they hang wreaths fashioned from recycled rubbish, and make origami stars and penguins from old paper.

Staff will get a special festive menu for the day, but it may not be the traditional turkey.

An albatross tops the Christmas tree at a BAS research station (Picture: BAS/PA)

Christmas decorations at a BAS research station (Picture: BAS/PA)

Last year, the team at Halley VI Research Station were served up chestnut cheese croquettes, a main of Roast Beef with cranberry gravy and chestnut-bacon sprouts. For dessert, there were yule logs, Christmas cake and pudding, along with Flodeboller (chocolate- covered marshmallow), as a nod to the chef’s Danish grandmother.

On Boxing Day, the Station Managers gave the catering team a ‘well-deserved break’ as they prepared brunch and dinner.

This year the crew of polar research ship, the RRS Sir David Attenborough, have been getting their art attack on making homemade gifts for secret Santa, and holding Christmas film evenings.

The ship will sail south of the Antarctic Peninsula and drop a team of researchers off at their study site on Christmas Eve, in time to spend the day itself hard at work.

On Bird Island, off the north-west tip of South Georgia, the team of six zoological field assistants will monitor the eggs of wandering albatross, fur seal pups and the chicks of macaroni penguins, mollymawks and skuas.

Antarctica may be the most isolated continent, but BAS staff will still have a connection to home as they will now be able to call family at no cost using a satellite phone.

The biggest worry may be that Father Christmas might not make it in time, given he will be starting in Lapland, at the other end of the planet.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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