Neumayer III polar research station: Christmas in Antarctica

Almost 14,000 kilometers south of Düsseldorf, the question of a white Christmas is irrelevant: at the Alfred Wegener Institute’s polar research station in Antarctica, the Neumayer III, it is white outside as far as the eye can see. Even currently in summer, with a mild minus 2.5 degrees, as ward doctor and manager Anja Weber explains in the Zoom call. However, the team on site has to forgo the candlelight romance, as the sun doesn’t set for around eight weeks in the Antarctic summer. “Even at midnight it’s still as bright as day,” says Weber, “there’s no great Christmas feeling there.”