The Christmas Moon 2015

There will be a full moon this Christmas for the first time since 1977. It will rise at 4:04 PM on Christmas Eve, reach the crest of its full phase (residing exactly 180 degrees from the sun in ecliptic longitude) at 3:11 AM on Christmas morning, and set at 7:35 AM. (All times Pacific Standard Time.)

That means Santa will be making his run this year in the light of the full moon.

There won't be another full moon on Christmas until 2034, so I hope you will be able to make the full moon a part of your Christmas Eve or early Christmas morning.

The December full moon is called the Cold Moon, for obvious reasons, or the Longest Night Moon, for its proximity to the Winter Solstice. But this year we can without hesitation call it what it is: the Christmas Moon.

The Christmas Moon

It's the last--and the smallest--of the full moons of 2013. It's called the Cold Moon, or the Long Night Moon, appearing so close to the Winter Solstice. But I will call it the Christmas Moon.

That doesn't mean this picture is accurate for this year. No, Santa will fly his sleigh under a full moon on Christmas Eve only about every nineteen years. This year he'll be out in the light of a waning gibbous moon. But we can save this picture and use it in 2015--there will be a full moon on December 25 that year.

But this one fits. One could almost imagine it's the night of the full moon in December, 2013, and the world is calm and peaceful and bright, and excitedly anticipating the celebration of the birth of Light.