Poor Brian’s Almanack: December 2026

December is the month New England runs on lamps. The sun is down by 4:15 most afternoons, the woods belong to hunters with muzzleloaders, and the mountains finally have enough snow to be worth the drive. The month only loses 11 minutes of daylight overall, because the losses stop on the solstice and turn around: the earliest sunset comes on the 8th, the shortest day on the 21st, and the latest sunrise doesn’t arrive until after New Year’s. In between there’s a supermoon two days before Christmas and a king tide on Christmas morning.

The Month at a Glance

Sun times are for Boston, from the U.S. Naval Observatory . Moon phases fall on the 1st (last quarter), 8th (new), 17th (first quarter), 23rd (full, at 8:28 pm), and 30th (last quarter again). No clock changes until March 14.

The Forecast

0.2Oct

0.7Nov

9.0 inDec

14.3Jan

14.4Feb

9.0Mar

1.6Apr

Expect the first plowable snow in Boston sometime this month: the city averages about nine inches in December . Expect it on a weeknight, timed for the morning commute and gone by the weekend. Expect a cold snap after the middle of the month that drops the hills west of 495 into the single digits and finds the one pipe you forgot. Expect a white Christmas with the usual confidence, which is low: the National Weather Service puts the historical odds of an inch on the ground at Logan on Christmas morning  at about 30 percent.

The Sky

The Geminids. The best meteor shower of the year gets a clean shot this time. The Geminids  peak on the night of Sunday the 13th into Monday the 14th, and the moon is a thin crescent, 18 percent lit, that sets at 8:27 pm on Sunday. After that the sky is dark until dawn. The shower’s radiant, near the star Castor in Gemini, climbs all evening and is highest around 2 am. Under a truly dark sky the Geminids can run past a hundred meteors an hour; from a suburban backyard, a few dozen is a good night. They’re slower and brighter than most meteors, and some come in yellow. It’s a Sunday night, so pick a spot you can get home from.

The Cold Moon. December’s full moon is the closest full moon of 2026 , about 221,700 miles away, and the second supermoon in a row. It’s exactly full at 8:28 pm on Wednesday the 23rd. That evening it rises at 3:39 pm, more than half an hour before sunset. On Christmas Eve it’s still 99 percent lit and rises at 4:56, after dark, so anyone driving east to relatives that night gets it over the windshield.

The solstice. Winter starts at 3:50 pm on Monday the 21st , less than half an hour before sunset. The shortest day of the year in Boston is 9 hours and 4 minutes long. Sunset has already been getting later for nearly two weeks by then. Sunrise keeps getting later until early January.

Planets. The planets are a morning show. Venus  passed its greatest brilliancy as a morning star in late November and is still the brightest thing in the southeast before dawn. Jupiter rises in the east around 10 pm, in Leo, and is high in the south by dawn. Saturn has the early evening to itself, low in the southwest.

The Water

Tides. The month’s biggest tides land on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. From the 22nd to the 27th, every day’s highest tide in Boston Harbor runs above 10.8 feet, and on both holiday mornings it reaches 11.8 feet: 10:40 am on the 24th and 11:35 am on the 25th, according to NOAA’s Boston station . Christmas morning’s is the higher of the two by a hair: about a foot and a half above an average high tide, and half a foot short of NOAA’s minor-flooding level. On a calm, cold morning that means water at the top of the seawalls and ice on the stairs at Long Wharf. With an east wind behind it, the half foot disappears.

The lows that week drop to minus 1.6 feet, but in the late afternoon dark. The best daylight low of the month is on Monday the 21st, the solstice, at 2:33 pm (minus 0.3 feet), which gives you the shortest day of the year with the most beach. For a morning walk, there’s 8:07 am on Monday the 28th (minus 0.1).

Water temperature. The Massachusetts Bay buoy  has started December at 49 or 50°F in each of the last three years and ended it at 44 to 46°F. That’s drysuit water. A 7mm wetsuit with a hood, boots, and gloves still works for a short dive, but the surface interval in a December wind is the hard part.

Tautog. The last fish of the year. The state’s tautog season  runs through Thursday the 31st, with the same five-fish limit and 16-inch minimum as in the fall. By now the fish have moved off the shallow rocks toward deeper water, so the shore fishing is mostly over and the boats are working the wrecks and ledges.

Snowy owls. The owls that come down from the Arctic for the winter like Logan Airport, because its mowed grass and open space look like tundra  and it’s full of ducks and rats. They start arriving in November. Mass Audubon’s Norman Smith has been trapping them there since 1981 and moving them somewhere safer, more than 900 so far, usually to the North Shore or the Cape. If you want to see one without a security badge, try the dunes at Plum Island or Duxbury Beach on a gray morning, and keep your distance.

The Islands

The Stroll. Nantucket’s Christmas Stroll  is Friday the 4th through Sunday the 6th. Santa arrives by boat at noon on Saturday, Main Street is lined with decorated trees from one end to the other, and every ferry is full in both directions. If you didn’t book in November, the fast ferry won’t help you now.

Scallops in the cold. The commercial bay scallop season runs through March, but December is when the cold starts taking days off the calendar. The town shuts commercial scalloping down below 28°F  to protect the seed scallops, which die if they’re exposed on a culling board in that kind of cold. By late January last winter the fleet had lost ten days to cold and wind, and the board raised the daily limit from five bushels to six starting February 2. A cold December means fewer scallops at Boston fish counters by January, and higher prices for the ones that get there.

Seal pups. Gray seals have their pups in the dead of winter, from December through February, on Monomoy and on Muskeget , the small island off Nantucket’s west end that’s home to the largest gray seal colony in the United States. Almost nobody is on the water to see it. If you find a pup alone on a Cape beach, it isn’t abandoned. Its mother is probably feeding offshore, and she can stay away for up to a day. NOAA asks people to stay at least 150 feet away  and keep dogs leashed.

Edgartown. Christmas in Edgartown usually takes up a weekend in early or mid December, with a parade down Main Street and the lighthouse lit on Memorial Wharf. A save-the-date lists Thursday the 10th through Sunday the 13th, the 45th year, but check the Vineyard Gazette  before you book the boat.

The Woods

Deer season. Massachusetts shotgun season  runs through Saturday the 12th, and primitive firearms season, muzzleloaders and bows, runs from Monday the 14th to the 31st. The orange rules don’t loosen for the muzzleloaders: every deer hunter in the woods this month has to wear 500 square inches of blaze orange  on the chest, back, and head, including the archers and anyone sitting in a blind. Wear orange on any walk in the woods until New Year’s Day. Sunday is still the one day without hunters in Massachusetts: the bill to end the Sunday ban was still in conference committee  as of early November, and nothing changes for this season until both chambers pass it and the governor signs.

North of the border. New Hampshire’s firearms season ends Sunday the 6th. Vermont’s December muzzleloader season runs from November 30 to December 13 , seven days a week. After mid-month the northern woods are quieter, which is the main reason to wait until the 14th for a hike in the Greens.

The Christmas Bird Count. Audubon’s 127th Christmas Bird Count  runs from Monday the 14th to January 5. Each count circle is fifteen miles across and picks a single day to count every bird in it, and Massachusetts has dozens of circles, from the Berkshires to the outer Cape. You don’t have to be an expert. Most circles pair beginners with someone who is, and the people who count at their feeders at home are part of it too. Sign up through the Audubon map well before the date, since some circles fill.

The Mountains

Mount Washington. By the Observatory’s 1991–2020 normals , the summit’s December averages a high of 20.1°F, a low of 3.5°F, 47.7 inches of snow, and a monthly average wind of 44 miles an hour. The record low for the month is 46 below, set in 1933. The Auto Road is closed to cars now, but the SnowCoach , a heated van on tracks, runs guided trips up to about 4,200 feet, around treeline, once there’s enough snow. Its season start depends on the snow and hadn’t been announced at press time. In 2023 it opened December 8 , which counted as early.

Skiing. By December the big resorts are open or should be. Conditions depend on how cold November was and how much snow the guns could make. Most areas don’t have their full terrain until after the holidays. Christmas week, from Saturday the 26th through New Year’s, is the most crowded stretch of the season. A Tuesday in the second week of December, before school lets out, is about as quiet as it gets. If you haven’t bought a pass, sales end early in the month: last season Epic went off sale December 4 and Ikon after December 11 . Check this year’s dates before you plan around them.

In Town

The tree. The 55th tree from Nova Scotia is lit on the Common  on Thursday the 3rd, with the program running from 6 to 8 pm next to the visitor center at 139 Tremont Street. The Commonwealth Avenue Mall lights  come on at 8, right after, from Arlington Street to Charlesgate. Take the Red or Green Line to Park Street. There is no parking within half a mile of the Common that night.

Holiday Pops. The Boston Pops’ holiday season  opens at Symphony Hall the same night, Thursday the 3rd, and runs through the 28th: 41 concerts in six cities. The last two nights, the 27th and 28th, are The Muppet Christmas Carol, screened with the orchestra playing the score live.

Hanukkah. The first candle is lit at sundown on Friday the 4th , and the eighth night is Friday the 11th.

The Revels. The Revels have filled Harvard’s Sanders Theatre every December for half a century. This year’s show is Midwinter Revels , an American celebration of the solstice, with 15 performances from Saturday the 12th to Monday the 28th, including one on the night of the solstice itself. Tickets run from $45 to $105 before fees.

The Tea Party. Wednesday the 16th is the 253rd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Revolutionary Spaces has re-staged the meeting that started it at the Old South Meeting House every December 16 in recent years: last year’s  started at 6:15 pm, with tickets from $25 to $60. The 2026 program hadn’t been announced at press time.

Christmas Day. The Celtics play the Heat at the Garden at 2:30 pm on Christmas , the first time the two teams have ever met on December 25. That fills the gap between the king tide at 11:35 and dinner.

First Night. Boston’s New Year’s Eve festival turned 50 last year. It was free, ran from noon to 12:30 am  with the main stage on City Hall Plaza, and the T was free after 8 pm. This year’s program will be at firstnightboston.org.

The Garden

Buying the tree. Most Christmas tree farms in Massachusetts open for cutting around Thanksgiving weekend , and the best trees go first. If you’re buying a cut tree from a lot instead, test it. The needles on a fresh tree bend instead of snapping , and only a few should fall when you bounce the trunk on the ground. At home, take half an inch to an inch  off the base before it goes in the stand, because the old cut seals over with sap within a few hours. The stand should hold about a quart of water for every inch of trunk diameter , and you should check it daily, since a fresh tree drinks the most in the first week. Plain water works. The aspirin, sugar, and soda don’t help .

Deer and salt. With the woods picked over, deer come into the yard for the evergreens. Arborvitae and yews get eaten from the bottom up. Iowa State’s extension  says fencing works best, at least six feet tall. Shrubs along the driveway and the sidewalk take the salt spray. A burlap screen protects against both, as long as it stands off the plant on stakes . Burlap wrapped tight against the branches traps ice and salt against the needles.

Mulch. Once the ground has frozen an inch or two, it’s time to mulch the perennial beds and the garlic. The point is to keep the soil frozen through the January thaw, not to keep it warm.

The Home

Ice dams. An ice dam forms when heat leaking from the house melts the snow on the upper roof, and the meltwater refreezes at the cold eaves. The ridge of ice then backs water up under the shingles. The state’s guide to ice dams  puts the fix in the attic, not on the roof: seal the air leaks into it, add insulation to the attic floor, and insulate any ducts that run through it. After a storm, a roof rake from the ground can clear the bottom few feet. Don’t climb up and don’t chip at the ice.

Pipes. Before the first cold snap, find the pipes that run along outside walls. On the coldest nights the Red Cross  recommends opening the cabinet doors under those sinks, letting a cold tap drip, and skipping the overnight thermostat setback. If you travel for the holidays, leave the heat at 55°F or higher.

Tree fires. By the National Fire Protection Association’s most recent count, about 160 home fires a year start with a Christmas tree . In nearly one in five, the tree was too close to a heat source, and electrical or lighting equipment was involved in almost half. Keep the tree at least three feet from any heat source , including radiators and heating vents, and put the lights on a timer so they’re never running when nobody’s home. When the needles start dropping on their own, the tree has dried out and it’s time to take it down.

The light at the desk. On the shortest days you’re at the desk before sunrise and still there after sunset. If December wears on you, try a light box. The Mayo Clinic  recommends one rated at 10,000 lux, used for 20 to 30 minutes within an hour of waking, about 16 to 24 inches from your face. Put it on the desk and turn it on with the first call of the day.

Poor Brian’s Almanack is a monthly almanac for coastal Massachusetts and the rest of New England.