Merry Christmas!

Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1956, with cover art by Emsh. We might think that January 1956 was too late for a Christmas cover, but I believe this issue would have been on the newsstand in December 1955 and so not too late after all. Science fiction asks the question What if? Well, Ed Emshwiller answered the question What if Santa Claus had to deliver Christmas presents to the stars and planets? in this clever cover illustration. Included in the cleverness is the artist's use of his signature as the name of the author of How To Manage Reindeer in Space. By the way, Emshwiller was born in 1925, and so we can add his name to the list of those for whom 2025 is the centennial of their arrivals upon Earth. As for the date in this illustration, it looks like December 2055, so one hundred years after Christmas 1955. Unfortunately, the artist was off by one day, for, according to an online future calendar created by Seattle Pacific University, Christmas 2055 will be on a Saturday rather than on a Friday. That's a meaningless quibble. But next year, in 2026, Christmas will in fact fall on a Friday. Before then, I will wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Caption copyright 2025 Terence E. Hanley