Full Moon December 2026: the Cold Moon in Cancer on December 23

Detail	December 2026 full moon
Date, US	Wednesday, December 23, 2026
Time, US Eastern	8:28 p.m. EST
Time, UTC	01:28 UTC, December 24
Moon sign	Cancer, about 2 degrees
Sun opposite	Capricorn
Traditional name	Cold Moon
Eclipse	none
Previous new moon	December 8, 7:52 p.m. EST, in Sagittarius
Next full moon	January 22, 2027, 7:17 a.m. EST, in Leo
All 2026 full moons	Full moon 2026 calendar

An evening full moon right after the solstice

The winter solstice arrives on Monday, December 21, at 3:50 p.m. EST, when the Sun crosses into Capricorn. Two days later the Moon reaches the point opposite it, which puts the full Moon near the top of the zodiac and high in the Northern Hemisphere's night sky. A winter full moon climbs higher than a summer one for the same reason the summer Sun does: it sits where the Sun will be six months from now.

The timing suits watchers in the Americas. On the East Coast the exact moment comes at 8:28 p.m., when the Moon has been up for a few hours. On the Pacific coast it is 5:28 p.m. PST, close to moonrise. Either way, Wednesday evening is the night to look, and Thursday, Christmas Eve, still shows an almost perfect disk. The lunar calendar works out the rise time and the exact moment for your own location.

The Cold Moon in the almanac tradition

In the North American almanac list the December full moon is the Cold Moon, a name that needs little explaining when it rises over frozen ground in the longest nights of the year. It is part of the same folk calendar that gives January its Wolf Moon. Like the rest, it is a seasonal label from custom, and nothing in the sky depends on it.

A year that opens and closes in Cancer

The year ends in the sign where it started. The first full moon of 2026, on January 3, was also in Cancer, at about 13 degrees. This last one sits at just over 2 degrees of the same sign. Each full moon lands about one sign further along than the one before, and twelve cycles later the pattern has come full circle.

Astrologers read Cancer as the sign of home, family, memory and the feeling of belonging, and Capricorn, where the Sun sits, as the sign of work, duty and long-range goals. A Cancer full moon is traditionally a time when private needs ask for room next to public obligations. Arriving just before the holidays, it puts a familiar question on the table: where you belong, and with whom.

Retrograde stations in the background

In December several slower planets change direction. Saturn turns direct in Aries on December 10, and Neptune follows on December 12. That same evening, December 12 in Eastern time, Jupiter stations retrograde in Leo, a retrograde that lasts until April 2027. Tradition reads planets turning direct as delayed matters starting to move again, and a Jupiter retrograde as a time to review growth rather than chase more of it. Retrograde planets 2026 lists every station of the year.

Where Cancer falls in your chart

Astrologers read this full moon as most personal if you have planets near 2 degrees of Cancer or Capricorn, or of Aries or Libra, which square it. Open your birth chart and find the house holding early Cancer. That house shows the area of life the full moon lights up, and the house of early Capricorn shows the duties it is balanced against.

Cancer is the sign the Moon rules, so astrologers give this full moon extra weight when your natal Moon is involved. If your moon sign is Cancer or Capricorn, tradition would read this full moon as an emotional one for you. What your moon sign means covers your own natal Moon. If neither sign holds anything for you, the Cold Moon rounds off the year in the background.

Looking back and ahead

The cycle peaking here began at the new moon on December 8 in Sagittarius, at 7:52 p.m. EST. The previous full moon was the November 2026 full moon in Gemini, the Beaver Moon of November 24. The next is the first of the new year, on January 22, 2027, in Leo, and full moon 2027 lists every date for the year ahead with eclipses included. To see 2026 in one table, open the full moon 2026 calendar.