Moon Phase Tonight: December 2026 Moon Calendar With Every Phase, Full Moon Dec. 23

The full moon of December 2026 is at 8:28 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Wednesday, Dec. 23, which is 01:28 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on Thursday, Dec. 24, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO). In New York the Moon is 100% lit that Wednesday and rises at 3:58 p.m., then sets at 8:07 a.m. the next morning in the table below. The date shifts by zone, so a calendar that says “Dec. 24” is using UTC.

This page gives the moon phase tonight for any December date: phase, percent lit, moonrise and moonset for New York on all 31 days, plus each main phase in Eastern, Pacific and UTC time. For the Moon today, see our November moon calendar.

December 2026 moon phases in Eastern, Pacific and UTC time

USNO lists its phase times in UTC. The conversions to EST and Pacific Standard Time (PST) are Fresh Calendars’ arithmetic from those instants. Three of the five phases fall on a different date in the Pacific zone than in the Eastern zone or UTC; those dates are in bold.

Phase	Eastern Standard Time	Pacific Standard Time	UTC
Last quarter	1:08 a.m., Tue., Dec. 1	10:08 p.m., Mon., Nov. 30	06:08, Dec. 1
New moon	7:52 p.m., Tue., Dec. 8	4:52 p.m., Tue., Dec. 8	00:52, Dec. 9
First quarter	12:42 a.m., Thu., Dec. 17	9:42 p.m., Wed., Dec. 16	05:42, Dec. 17
Full moon	8:28 p.m., Wed., Dec. 23	5:28 p.m., Wed., Dec. 23	01:28, Dec. 24
Last quarter	1:59 p.m., Wed., Dec. 30	10:59 a.m., Wed., Dec. 30	18:59, Dec. 30

The next new moon after December is at 3:24 p.m. EST on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2027 (20:24 UTC), per USNO.

What time is the December 2026 full moon in the U.S.?

The full moon is one instant, 01:28 UTC on Dec. 24. Every U.S. zone is behind UTC, so the Moon turns full on Wednesday, Dec. 23 everywhere in the table. We worked out the local times from the UTC instant and each zone’s standard-time offset; USNO does not print them.

City	Time on Wed., Dec. 23
New York	8:28 p.m. EST
Chicago	7:28 p.m. Central Standard Time (CST)
Denver	6:28 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (MST)
Phoenix	6:28 p.m. MST
Los Angeles	5:28 p.m. PST
Seattle	5:28 p.m. PST
Anchorage	4:28 p.m. Alaska Standard Time (AKST)
Honolulu	3:28 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time (HST)

Is the December 2026 full moon a supermoon?

NASA’s supermoon page lists “December 24, 2026 (01:28 UTC)” among its upcoming supermoons, and the Nov. 24 full moon as well. NASA defines a supermoon as a full moon that happens when the Moon’s orbit is closest to Earth, called perigee. The page gives no perigee distance or date for December, so this story gives none. For the other full moon names and the supermoon season, see our supermoon guide for November and December.

Moon phases in December 2026: day-by-day calendar

New York City (40.71 N, 74.01 W), Eastern Standard Time all month. Phase names and percent lit are as USNO gives them for each date; moonrise and moonset are local clock time. Two days are missing an event: the Moon has no moonrise on Tuesday, Dec. 1 and Wednesday, Dec. 30, and no moonset on Thursday, Dec. 17. USNO labels Dec. 8 as the new moon date in New York, matching the 7:52 p.m. EST instant, and Dec. 17 as a waxing gibbous, 55% lit, although first quarter came at 12:42 a.m. EST that morning.

Date	Phase	Lit	Moonrise	Moonset
Tue., Dec. 1	Waning Crescent	45%	none	12:30 p.m.
Wed., Dec. 2	Waning Crescent	35%	12:36 a.m.	12:53 p.m.
Thu., Dec. 3	Waning Crescent	25%	1:43 a.m.	1:15 p.m.
Fri., Dec. 4	Waning Crescent	17%	2:48 a.m.	1:38 p.m.
Sat., Dec. 5	Waning Crescent	10%	3:53 a.m.	2:04 p.m.
Sun., Dec. 6	Waning Crescent	5%	4:58 a.m.	2:34 p.m.
Mon., Dec. 7	Waning Crescent	2%	6:02 a.m.	3:10 p.m.
Tue., Dec. 8	New Moon	0%	7:03 a.m.	3:52 p.m.
Wed., Dec. 9	Waxing Crescent	1%	7:59 a.m.	4:42 p.m.
Thu., Dec. 10	Waxing Crescent	3%	8:47 a.m.	5:38 p.m.
Fri., Dec. 11	Waxing Crescent	6%	9:28 a.m.	6:38 p.m.
Sat., Dec. 12	Waxing Crescent	12%	10:02 a.m.	7:40 p.m.
Sun., Dec. 13	Waxing Crescent	18%	10:30 a.m.	8:43 p.m.
Mon., Dec. 14	Waxing Crescent	26%	10:55 a.m.	9:45 p.m.
Tue., Dec. 15	Waxing Crescent	35%	11:17 a.m.	10:47 p.m.
Wed., Dec. 16	Waxing Crescent	45%	11:38 a.m.	11:50 p.m.
Thu., Dec. 17	Waxing Gibbous	55%	11:59 a.m.	none
Fri., Dec. 18	Waxing Gibbous	65%	12:22 p.m.	12:56 a.m.
Sat., Dec. 19	Waxing Gibbous	75%	12:48 p.m.	2:04 a.m.
Sun., Dec. 20	Waxing Gibbous	84%	1:20 p.m.	3:18 a.m.
Mon., Dec. 21	Waxing Gibbous	92%	2:00 p.m.	4:35 a.m.
Tue., Dec. 22	Waxing Gibbous	97%	2:52 p.m.	5:53 a.m.
Wed., Dec. 23	Full Moon	100%	3:58 p.m.	7:05 a.m.
Thu., Dec. 24	Waning Gibbous	99%	5:15 p.m.	8:07 a.m.
Fri., Dec. 25	Waning Gibbous	96%	6:36 p.m.	8:57 a.m.
Sat., Dec. 26	Waning Gibbous	90%	7:57 p.m.	9:35 a.m.
Sun., Dec. 27	Waning Gibbous	82%	9:13 p.m.	10:06 a.m.
Mon., Dec. 28	Waning Gibbous	72%	10:25 p.m.	10:33 a.m.
Tue., Dec. 29	Waning Gibbous	62%	11:33 p.m.	10:56 a.m.
Wed., Dec. 30	Waning Gibbous	51%	none	11:19 a.m.
Thu., Dec. 31	Waning Crescent	41%	12:40 a.m.	11:42 a.m.

Times are Eastern Standard Time. The printable moon calendar for December lists each day through Dec. 27 and sums up Dec. 28 to 31; the table here has every day.

Moon phase on Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year’s Eve

On Thursday, Dec. 24 the Moon is a waning gibbous, 99% lit, and rises at 5:15 p.m. in New York. On Friday, Dec. 25 it is 96% lit and rises at 6:36 p.m., setting at 8:57 a.m. On Thursday, Dec. 31 it is a waning crescent, 41% lit, with moonrise at 12:40 a.m. and moonset at 11:42 a.m.; our New Year’s Eve moon story covers midnight.

How bright is the Moon on the December sky dates?

The Moon’s light matters most on the meteor shower nights. USNO puts the Moon at 18% lit on Sunday, Dec. 13 and 26% on Monday, Dec. 14, when the American Meteor Society (AMS) lists the Geminids peak as Dec. 13-14; see our Geminid moon viewing times. The AMS lists the Ursids peak as Dec. 21-22, and USNO has the Moon 92% lit on Dec. 21 and 97% on Dec. 22, so it is bright; our Ursid moonset times story has the city table. The AMS figures on its own page differ from USNO’s, so we use USNO’s throughout.

What else is in the December sky?

The December solstice is at 20:50 UTC on Monday, Dec. 21, or 3:50 p.m. EST, per USNO; our winter solstice story has sunset times. Our December night sky calendar covers the planets. Mark the dates on the December printable calendar or the yearly calendar.