Where to Shoot in December 2026: Geminids, Dark Aurora Nights and a Christmas Eve Full Moon

December 2026 hands night photographers one clean window. The new moon falls on 9 December, so the first half of the month is dark: Tromsø, Reykjavík and Rovaniemi get more than 14 hours a night of moonless darkness around that date, and when the Geminid meteor shower peaks on the night of 13 to 14 December a thin crescent moon has set by about 20:00 in London. After that the moon takes over, building to a full moon at 01:28 UTC on Christmas Eve that rides 65° high over London at midnight. Between those dates sit Lyon's Fête des Lumières (5 to 8 December), Nuremberg's Christkindlesmarkt (27 November to 24 December) and a Kyoto maple forecast that has slipped into December. Every time below was calculated and checked against the US Naval Observatory (USNO).

December 2026 photography calendar at a glance

Geminid meteor shower 2026: start after the moon sets

The American Meteor Society gives the Geminids' peak as the night of 13 to 14 December, with the shower active from 4 to 17 December, and calls it usually the strongest shower of the year. It is also the one major shower that works before midnight, because the radiant (the point in Gemini the meteors appear to fly away from) is already well up by 22:00.

The moon is no problem this year. Five days after new moon it is a crescent under a fifth lit, and it sets early in the evening:

Do this: get away from streetlights, be in place by 21:00, and lie back facing roughly east or south rather than staring at Gemini itself. Meteors appear all over the sky, and ones further from the radiant leave longer trails. The higher the radiant, the more meteors you see, so the hours after midnight are the most productive if you can stay warm.

If you only have your phone: set it on something solid, use Night mode at its longest exposure and take frame after frame aimed about halfway up the sky. Phones catch only the brightest Geminids, so treat the photos as a bonus and watch with your eyes. Our night camera apps guide covers apps that add longer manual exposures.

Northern lights in December 2026: book the first half of the month

Tromsø is in polar night all through December, but that does not mean 24 hours of dark sky. Around midday the sun sits only a few degrees below the horizon and lights a long blue twilight, so the usable aurora darkness (sun more than 12° below the horizon) is about 16 hours. The moon then decides how much of that is actually dark. Hours of moonless darkness per night, out of total darkness:

The call: 5 to 13 December is the best aurora week of the month at all three bases, and a Christmas trip from 20 to 25 December gets almost none: under 15 minutes a night at any of the three. A bright moon does not stop a strong aurora, and it lights snow and mountains nicely, but faint displays wash out. If your dates are fixed over Christmas, go anyway and make the moonlit snow part of the picture. Our aurora apps guide explains what the alerts actually measure, and the Iceland guide covers where to stand once you are there.

Fête des Lumières 2026: Lyon's Sunday is the blue-sky night

The festival runs from Saturday 5 to Tuesday 8 December. The official hours are 19:00 to 23:00 on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, and 18:00 to 22:00 on Sunday 6 December, unless an individual installation's page says otherwise.

That hour matters for photographs. On 6 December Lyon's sun sets at 16:57 and civil twilight (the bright half of blue hour) ends at 17:30. The sky keeps a deep blue until about 18:08, when the sun reaches 12° below the horizon. So on Sunday the installations switch on while there is still colour left in the sky, which gives you a lit facade against blue rather than black. On the other three nights they start after the sky has gone dark.

Do this: on Sunday, pick one installation, be in position before 18:00 and shoot for the first 10 minutes. Spend the earlier blue hour, from 17:00, on a wide view of the city from high ground. Expect crowds on all four nights; a phone held above head height on a short selfie stick is more practical than a tripod. Lyon has no LightScout location guide yet.

Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt: shoot the stalls in blue hour, not after dark

The city of Nuremberg's own notice gives the 2026 market as 27 November to 24 December on the Hauptmarkt, open 10:00 to 21:00 daily until 23 December and 10:00 to 14:00 on Christmas Eve. The Christkind opens it with a prologue at 17:30 on Friday 27 November.

The market's red-and-white roofed stalls, the Frauenkirche and the Schöner Brunnen fountain photograph best while the sky still has some blue in it. On 27 November sunset is 16:22 and civil twilight ends at 16:58; by 12 December those are 16:16 and 16:54. The opening ceremony at 17:30 happens in full darkness, so if you want both, photograph the square from about 16:20 and then hold your place for the prologue.

If you only have your phone: tap to focus on the lights, then drag the exposure slider down until the bulbs stop blowing out to white. The stalls will look darker on screen than they feel in person, and that is closer to the real mood.

Kyoto maples in December 2026

The Japan Meteorological Corporation's 2 September forecast, as published by Nippon.com, put Kyoto's red maple peak around 11 December and its yellow ginkgo peak around 27 November, with the forecaster expecting a later season than usual across Japan after a hot year. That shifts the classic Kyoto maple trip into the first half of December. Our November calendar carried the same forecast; check the latest update before you book, because these forecasts move as the season develops.

On 11 December Kyoto's sunset is 16:46 and civil twilight ends at 17:14, so temples that close at dusk give you little time after the light turns warm. Shoot the maples in the morning and the shaded valleys in the middle of the day, when red leaves glow against dark trunks without harsh contrast. The Kyoto guide lists the viewpoints.

Winter solstice and the Christmas Eve full moon

The solstice falls at 20:50 UTC on 21 December. In London the sun rises at 08:04 and sets at 15:53 that day, 7 hours 49 minutes of daylight, and at noon it climbs only 15° above the horizon. That low sun is the upside of December: golden light lasts all day on clear mornings, and long shadows stretch across every street. Our golden hour guide explains how to use it.

Two days later the full moon does the opposite. It is full at 01:28 UTC on 24 December, and because a full moon sits opposite the sun, December's rides high: about 65° above London's southern horizon around midnight on 23 to 24 December. For a moonrise shot, the evening of 23 December is the one to pick. The moon rises at 14:48 GMT at a bearing of 42°, which is north-east, more than an hour before the 15:55 sunset, so it is already clear of the rooftops while the sky is still light. On Christmas Eve it rises at 16:08, 13 minutes after sunset, into a darker sky. Our moonrise planning guide shows how to line it up with a landmark, and the London guide has the viewpoints.