December Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius or Capricorn?

Two zodiac signs share December: Sagittarius from December 1 to 21 and Capricorn from December 22 to 31. The line between them is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, so every holiday birthday from Christmas to New Year's Eve belongs to Capricorn. In 2026 the solstice, and with it the start of Capricorn, comes at 3:50 p.m. on December 21, Eastern time, a day earlier than the usual lists show.

At a glance	Sagittarius	Capricorn
Days in December	December 1 to 21	December 22 to 31
Full sign dates	November 22 to December 21	December 22 to January 19
Element	Fire	Earth
Modality	Mutable	Cardinal
Ruler	Jupiter	Saturn
Symbol	Archer	Sea-goat
Sun enters in 2026	November 22, 2:23 a.m. EST	December 21, 3:50 p.m. EST

December zodiac signs, date by date

The dates below follow the standard list, with Sagittarius through the 21st and Capricorn from the 22nd. In 2026 the 21st already belongs to Capricorn from 3:50 p.m. on, as the next section shows.

Date	Sun sign
December 1	Sagittarius
December 2	Sagittarius
December 3	Sagittarius
December 4	Sagittarius
December 5	Sagittarius
December 6	Sagittarius
December 7	Sagittarius
December 8	Sagittarius
December 9	Sagittarius
December 10	Sagittarius
December 11	Sagittarius
December 12	Sagittarius
December 13	Sagittarius
December 14	Sagittarius
December 15	Sagittarius
December 16	Sagittarius
December 17	Sagittarius
December 18	Sagittarius
December 19	Sagittarius
December 20	Sagittarius
December 21	Sagittarius
December 22	Capricorn
December 23	Capricorn
December 24	Capricorn
December 25	Capricorn
December 26	Capricorn
December 27	Capricorn
December 28	Capricorn
December 29	Capricorn
December 30	Capricorn
December 31	Capricorn

The winter solstice in 2026

The Sun enters Capricorn on December 21, 2026, at 3:50 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 20:50 UTC. That matches the published time of the December solstice to the minute, and the NovaOracles astronomy engine arrives at it from the Sun's computed position. So December 21, 2026, carries two signs in the Eastern time zone: a birth before 3:50 p.m. is Sagittarius, and a birth from 3:50 p.m. on is Capricorn. On the West Coast the moment falls at 12:50 p.m. Pacific. At the solstice the Sun stands farthest south on the ecliptic, its yearly path through the sky, and as a cardinal sign Capricorn opens the northern winter. In the Southern Hemisphere the same day is the longest of the year and starts summer, with the sign dates unchanged.

Sagittarius and Capricorn in the tradition

Sagittarius is mutable fire, ruled by Jupiter and drawn as an archer, often a centaur, aiming an arrow at a far target. Astrologers read it as optimistic and frank, happiest when life leaves some room to explore. Capricorn is cardinal earth, ruled by Saturn, the sea-goat that climbs. Its reading is disciplined and patient, with a long view and a taste for responsibility. Tradition makes Jupiter the planet of growth and Saturn the planet of limits, so December passes from expansion to structure. Capricorn then carries on into the new year, where the January page picks up the story.

Sagittarius or Capricorn: pinning down your December birthday

Up to December 20 the answer is Sagittarius, and from December 23 it is Capricorn, in every year from 1930 to 2030 by our own calculation. In that span the solstice fell on either the 21st or the 22nd in Eastern time, so those two days depend on the year and, on the day of the change, the hour. The sign is set by the date and time of birth alone. A quick check in the zodiac sign dates tool with your birth year shows the sign for that date and flags it if the Sun changed signs that day.

Where the rising sign comes in

Your December sign is your Sun sign, the steady center of a chart. The rising sign shows how you come across at first meeting, and because it turns with the Earth every day, it needs your exact birth time. A Capricorn with Sagittarius rising can seem easygoing and chatty long before the Capricorn caution shows. The rising sign calculator works it out from your date, time and place of birth.