Overview
- The solstice falls on Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025 at 10:03 a.m. EST (9:03 a.m. CST, 3:03 p.m. UTC), a single moment when the Northern Hemisphere tilts farthest from the Sun.
- Earth’s 23.5-degree axial tilt and slightly elliptical orbit decouple the earliest sunset and latest sunrise from the solstice, producing the offset captured by the equation of time.
- In many mid-latitude locations the earliest sunset has already occurred—around Dec. 8 in Boston and Philadelphia and about Dec. 12 across much of the UK—even though overall daylight keeps shortening until the solstice.
- Daylight on Dec. 21 varies by latitude, with London near 7 hours 49 minutes, Scottish cities between roughly 5 and 7 hours, and Chicago just under 9 hours 11 minutes.
- After the solstice, daylight increases slowly, with Chicago’s sunset reaching 4:31 p.m. on Dec. 31, Los Angeles hitting 4:55 p.m. by year’s end, and Boston adding about a minute of evening light per day in the final days of December.