The first Christmas song played in outer space was “Jingle Bells.”

What happened in space?

On December 16, 1965, during NASA’s Gemini 6 mission, astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford secretly brought a small harmonica and sleigh bells aboard their spacecraft. As a playful Christmas prank, they reported to Mission Control that they saw a mysterious object resembling a UFO or Santa’s sleigh, then suddenly performed “Jingle Bells” live from orbit.

Why it’s considered the first

This brief performance of “Jingle Bells” is widely recognized as the first song ever played in outer space, and specifically as the first Christmas song broadcast from space. The moment has since been noted in historical write‑ups and by institutions like the Smithsonian, which even preserves the tiny harmonica used on the mission.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.