“Roger, please be informed there is a Santa Claus.” – Jim Lovell (confirming to Houston Mission Control that they had left the moon’s orbit), Apollo 8, Christmas Day, 1968
In 1961, President Kennedy issued a bold challenge to the nation; “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”
Seven years later, much progress had been made, but the ultimate goal was yet to be realized. With social upheaval at home, and the war in Vietnam raging, support for the space program was waning. 1968 was a particularly tumultuous year in American history, with the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the USS Pueblo incident, riots in DC, and riots at the Democrat National Convention in Chicago.
As the year drew to a close, the Apollo program was progressing slowly due to issues with the lunar module. NASA, in the spirit of Kennedy’s original bold proposal, made a daring change to the original Apollo 8 mission plan. On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 launched – without the lunar module – for the first manned mission to the moon. The first manned launch on the massive Saturn V rocket carried astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders on a mission to orbit the moon, and return home again.
The spacecraft reached the moon on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968. The crew sent several images back to mission control, including the now iconic “Earthrise” photo, shot by Anders, that showed the Earth seeming to rise over the surface of the moon.
In addition to the photos, the crew was to deliver a statement. NASA leadership told the crew that they would have the largest audience in the history of mankind. And so, on Christmas Eve 1968, the Apollo 8 crew could be heard across the world:
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William A. Anders:
We are now approaching lunar sunrise. And, for all the people back on earth, the crew of Apollo 8 have a message that we would like to send to you.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”
James A. Lovell, Jr.:
“And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”
Frank Borman:
“And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and God saw that it was good.”
And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close, with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth.
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The following day, on Christmas, Apollo 8 left lunar orbit. Mission Control requested confirmation that the controlled burn to pull them out of orbit had been successful, and Jim Lovell responded, “Roger, please be informed there is a Santa Claus.” Two days later, on December 27, 1968, Apollo 8 returned safely home.
Years later, the crew recounted how they arrived at reciting the first ten verses of Genesis. They were given six-weeks-notice that they would have the largest audience ever. The team sought guidance from NASA leadership, including the head of NASA PR, who simply told them to do “something appropriate.” The three astronauts could not come up with a suitable message that they didn’t feel was trite, and sought assistance from several prominent speech writers and authors. None could come up with a suitable message. Finally, the wife of one of the writers, a woman who was raised in a convent in France, and had fought in the French Resistance during the Second World War, made a suggestion; “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”
At the 40th anniversary commemoration of the Apollo 8 mission, Lovell stated; “The first ten verses of Genesis is the foundation of many of the world’s religions, not just the Christian religion. There are more people in other religions than the Christian religion around the world, and so this would be appropriate to that and so that’s how it came to pass.”1
As we draw the curtain on the current year, and look forward to a new one, may we continue to find the will to do the hard things, to look to the things that unite us, and may God continue to bless us, all of us on the good earth.
P.A. Tennant – Christmas Day, 2024
Soli Deo Gloria
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Photo: NASA
Copyright 2025 Paul A. Tennant
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1NASA: Apollo 8, Christmas at the Moon
P.A. Tennant 