When and where to see the Cold Moon 2026
The exact moment of full moon is Wednesday, December 23, 2026 at 8:28 PM in New York. The best night to watch is Wednesday, December 23, when the Moon comes up at 3:58 PM, low in the northeast, about 35 minutes before sunset. It climbs to about 76° above the horizon around 12:02 AM and sets around sunrise the next morning.
A full moon looks full for about three nights. From New York the Moon is 98% lit when it rises the evening before and 99% the evening after, and on those nights it rises 66 minutes and 77 minutes later each evening. Those long gaps come from the steep angle of the Moon's path to the evening horizon at this time of year.
The Moon is at a declination of +27.7° this time, well north of the celestial equator, so for the Northern Hemisphere it rides high and stays up a long time. It sits in front of the stars of Gemini.
| City | Exact full moon (local time) |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles | Wednesday, December 23, 2026, 5:28 PM |
| New York | Wednesday, December 23, 2026, 8:28 PM |
| London | Thursday, December 24, 2026, 1:28 AM |
| Berlin | Thursday, December 24, 2026, 2:28 AM |
| New Delhi | Thursday, December 24, 2026, 6:58 AM |
| Tokyo | Thursday, December 24, 2026, 10:28 AM |
| Sydney | Thursday, December 24, 2026, 12:28 PM |
Why is it called the Cold Moon?
The Cold Moon is the December full moon, the last of the year. The Old Farmer's Almanac describes it as the moon of the start of winter's cold, and the name is shared by several peoples. In old English usage it is the Moon before Yule.
It is also the full moon of the longest nights. Close to the winter solstice the full moon follows the path of the midsummer Sun, so it rises in the northeast, climbs higher than any other full moon and stays above the horizon for most of the long December night.
Other names for the December full moon
The almanac names are one tradition among many. Native American peoples used hundreds of moon names that followed their own local seasons, and the attributions below are those given by the Old Farmer's Almanac:
- Long Night Moon: Mohican
- Drift Clearing Moon: Cree
- Hoar Frost Moon: Cree
- Snow Moon: Haida and Cherokee
- Winter Maker Moon: Western Abenaki
- Moon before Yule: old English usage
December in nature and the sky
December brings the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year in the north. Snow and ice settle over northern lands, many animals hibernate or shelter, and the holiday season fills the nights with lights. The Geminid meteor shower, the year's richest, peaks in mid-December.
The December full moon crosses Taurus or Gemini, near Aldebaran, Castor and Pollux, and passes nearly overhead from the far south of the United States and North Africa.
Festivals on the Cold Moon 2026
Many of the world's calendars are lunar, so festivals around the globe fall on this same full moon. Dates below were checked against published calendars; where India and the US keep different dates, both are given.
Christmas Eve
December 24, 2026
The exact full moon falls on December 24 in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, and on the evening of December 23 in the Americas. Either way the Moon is still about 99% lit on Christmas Eve night, a bright supermoon for midnight services and late walks home. The last full moon on December 24 (UTC) was in 2007, and the next on Christmas Day is in 2034.
Margashirsha Purnima and Dattatreya Jayanti
December 23, 2026 (India and New York)
The Hindu full moon of Margashirsha, kept as the birth anniversary of Dattatreya, a form combining Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
Unduvap Poya
December 23, 2026
Sri Lanka's December full moon holiday remembers the arrival of the nun Sanghamitta with a sapling of the Bodhi tree.
The winter solstice and the pagan festival of Yule come two days earlier (see the Wheel of the Year). The Geminid meteor shower peaks on the night of December 13 to 14, 2026, under a young crescent Moon that sets early, which makes 2026 a good Geminid year.
Supermoon, micromoon or neither?
The Cold Moon 2026 is 356,729 km from Earth, centre to centre. That is closer than our supermoon line of 362,500 km, so it counts as a supermoon: about 8% wider and 16% brighter than a full moon at the average distance. Of the 13 full moons of 2026, it is the 1st closest. The biggest is the Cold Moon at 356,729 km and the smallest the Blue Moon at 406,126 km.
The Cold Moon from the Southern Hemisphere
In the Southern Hemisphere December is early summer and the solstice brings the longest day. The December full moon there is the lowest of the year, skimming the northern horizon on short, warm nights. The full moon happens at the same instant worldwide; in Sydney it is Thursday, December 24, 2026 at 12:28 PM, and the Moon climbs to about 29° there that night, compared with 76° from New York. South of the equator the Moon also looks upside down to northern eyes, with the dark "Man in the Moon" features flipped.
Before and after the Cold Moon
More: All full moon names · Moon calendar 2026 · Next full moon · Moon phase today