Every December, reports of UFO sightings tend to rise, giving the festive season an unexpected extraterrestrial twist. Experts say the surge is less about alien visitors and more about human behavior and holiday spectacle. With more people off work, out shopping, and looking skyward amid fireworks and light displays, ordinary sights are often mistaken for something otherworldly. Research even shows a notable spike on Christmas Day itself, with many reports describing little more than unusual lights moving through the sky.
History adds a playful footnote to the phenomenon. In 1965, astronauts Wally Schirra Jr. and Thomas Stafford jokingly reported a mysterious object during their Gemini 6 mission, briefly alarming mission control before revealing it was a Christmas prank capped off with a harmonica rendition of "Jingle Bells." As experts note today, the real constant isn't an increase in UFO activity, but an increase in people noticing and sometimes misinterpreting what's already there.