Louisiana Nature Guide: December 2026
Data updated: August 2026Sources & method · Corrections
December settles Louisiana into its mild winter — the marshes throng with wintering geese and ducks, the Christmas Bird Counts tally the season, and the satsumas and Gulf oysters fill the holiday tables. The bare cypress stands gray over the swamps, and the long, dark nights bring the brilliant winter sky.
Week by week in December
December 3–9
- Christmas Bird Counts begin tallying Louisiana's continental waterfowl as geese rise in roaring clouds over Cameron Prairie.
- The last cypress needles fall, leaving the state tree's bare gray ranks and knees standing over the dark Atchafalaya for winter.
- Plant bare-root trees, roses, and fruit, and begin dormant pruning of fruit trees and muscadines on mild dry days.
December 10–16
- The Geminid meteor shower peaks around December 14, the year's richest and most reliable, sending bright meteors from early evening on.
- American White Pelicans gather on the lakes with the resident Brown Pelicans, the state bird, as diving ducks raft on the bays.
- Satsumas and Gulf oysters are at their festive peak for the holiday table, with fresh pecans and cane syrup.
December 17–23
- The winter solstice near December 21 marks the longest nights as Orion, the Pleiades, and the Winter Hexagon wheel up the sky.
- Camellias are in glorious bloom — the defining winter flower of the Louisiana yard — and sweet olive perfumes the warm-spell days.
- Cool-season greens grow on under row covers, satsumas ripen, and you can plant cool-season annuals through the mild winter.
December 24–31
- The marshes throng with wintering geese and ducks as the holiday Christmas Bird Counts continue across the state.
- The bare bald cypress and tupelo stand gray over the swamps, while live oaks, magnolia, and pines hold the evergreen winter color.
- On the mildest coastal days a hardy gulf fritillary or cloudless sulphur may still take wing over a winter-blooming garden.
- Satsumas, Gulf oysters, frost-sweetened greens, and fresh pecans close the market year on the holiday tables.
Birds This Month
December is prime winter birding in Louisiana, and the month of the Christmas Bird Counts that tally the state's renowned waterfowl concentrations. The coastal marshes and Acadiana ricelands hold continental numbers of wintering waterfowl — Snow Geese, Greater White-fronted Geese, and Ross's Geese rising in roaring clouds at Cameron Prairie and Sabine NWRs, with Northern Pintail, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, and Mottled Duck filling the impoundments and diving ducks rafting on the bays.
The wintering land birds are settled in. Sparrows pack the fields and brush — White-throated, Savannah, Swamp, Song, Le Conte's, and Sedge Wren — and feeders peak with Northern Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees, Yellow-rumped Warblers, American Goldfinches, and Cedar Waxwings. Bald Eagles tend nests along the bayous, Sandhill Cranes winter in the north, American White Pelicans gather on the lakes with the resident Brown Pelicans, the state bird, and Roseate Spoonbills and White Ibis work the coastal marshes. In the Kisatchie pinelands the Red-cockaded Woodpecker holds its longleaf clusters year-round.
What's Blooming
December offers few wild blooms in Louisiana, but the mild coast keeps more stirring than the frosty north, and the structural remains of the year stand through the marsh and field. The silky white seed of groundsel bush (saltbush) and the plumes of roseau cane and goldenrod rim the marsh and prairie remnants, and the native beautyberry, yaupon, and American holly hold their bright berries for the wintering birds.
In gardens, the camellias (sasanqua and the first japonica types) are in glorious bloom — the defining winter flower of the Louisiana yard — joined by chrysanthemums, pansies, violas, snapdragons, dianthus, and ornamental cabbage. The sweet olive perfumes the warm-spell days, and the earliest paperwhites and narcissus may open in the south by month's end. The Southern magnolia, the state flower, keeps its glossy evergreen leaves, and the witch hazel opens its odd yellow ribbon flowers along the bayous in the bottomland woods.
Garden This Month
December is a mild, working month in the Louisiana garden, far from the frozen dormancy of the North. The cool-season vegetable garden grows on across most of the state — collards, mustard, turnip, kale, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, and green onions, the greens at their frost-sweetened best — protected by row covers on the coldest nights and grown in the open along the lower delta. Harvest satsumas and citrus, and protect the trees from the hard freezes that can sweep down even to the coast.
This is the prime month to plant bare-root and balled trees, shrubs, roses, fruit trees, blueberries, and muscadines while they are dormant, and to begin dormant pruning of fruit trees and grapes on mild dry days. Plant the last spring bulbs, mulch overwintering garlic, strawberries, and tender perennials, and set out cool-season annuals — pansies, violas, snapdragons. Spread compost over resting beds, clean and oil tools in the quiet stretches, and order seed for the spring garden, which begins again in just weeks in this long-seasoned state.
Zone 8a (north Louisiana): hard freezes are routine now. Mulch root crops and overwintering garlic, protect young citrus and tender shrubs, harvest frost-sweetened greens, and begin dormant pruning of fruit trees and muscadines on mild dry days.
Zone 9a (Acadiana & central prairie): mostly mild with occasional freezes. Row covers carry the greens and root crops, satsumas need protection on the coldest nights, and you can plant bare-root trees, roses, and the last spring bulbs.
Zone 9b (lower delta & New Orleans): the mildest gardening in the state. Cool-season crops grow on outdoors with little check, citrus ripens, and you can plant trees, shrubs, and cool-season annuals through the gentle winter.
What's at the Farmers Market
December centers Louisiana markets on the holiday harvest, with citrus and seafood at their festive best. Satsumas from Plaquemines Parish — Louisiana's beloved easy-peeling winter mandarin — are at their peak at the Crescent City, Red Stick, and Lafayette markets, joined by navel oranges, kumquats, Meyer lemons, and grapefruit. Gulf oysters from the brackish coastal reefs are at their cold-season prime for the holiday table, and the sugarcane grinding finishes with fresh cane syrup.
The produce leans on the cool-season crops and storage staples — frost-sweetened greens (collards, mustard, turnip, kale), cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuces, carrots, beets, turnips, sweet potatoes, and winter squash. Fresh Louisiana pecans, local cane syrup, honey, stone-ground grits, and rice round out the holiday markets. Choose satsumas heavy for their size, even with greenish skin, and store cool. Select oysters with tightly closed, heavy shells smelling of clean seawater, keep them cold under a damp cloth cup-side down, and use promptly. Pick greens crisp and unwilted and refrigerate.
Night Sky This Month
December's long, cold, dark nights bring Louisiana the brilliant winter sky and the year's best meteor show. The darkest escapes from the river-city glow remain the open marshes of Sabine and Cameron Prairie NWRs, the Acadiana ricelands, the pinelands of Kisatchie National Forest, and the wide Atchafalaya. The Baton Rouge Astronomical Society, Pontchartrain Astronomy Society, and the LIGO Science Education Center near Livingston hold winter viewing nights, and the early darkness makes for easy family stargazing.
The Geminid meteor shower peaks around December 14, the richest and most reliable shower of the year, sending bright, slow meteors from early evening on — excellent from a dark site. The brilliant winter constellations dominate: Orion climbs the southeast with the Orion Nebula glowing in his sword, Sirius blazing below, the Pleiades riding high, and the great Winter Hexagon wheeling up. The solstice near December 21 marks the longest nights. The printable Louisiana night-sky guide lists this year's exact Geminid peak, Moon phases, and the best dark-sky sites near you.
Butterflies & Pollinators
December halts most butterfly flight in north Louisiana, but the state's mild winters and warm spells keep several species stirring along the coast and across the southern parishes. The overwintering gulf fritillary, cloudless sulphur, and sleepy orange may take wing over a winter-blooming garden on the year's mildest days, and the hibernating question mark, eastern comma, and mourning cloak can flush from bottomland woods in a warm spell.
Most species wait out the cool in earlier life stages. Monarchs have crossed the Gulf to the Mexican overwintering forests, though a rare lingerer may persist over coastal tropical milkweed in the mildest winters. The eastern tiger and giant swallowtails overwinter as chrysalises camouflaged on twigs and citrus bark, the pipevine swallowtail in the leaf litter, and the goatweed leafwing, disguised as a dead leaf, overwinters as an adult tucked in bark crevices. Leaving leaf litter, standing flower stems, and brush piles undisturbed through the winter is the single best thing a Louisiana gardener can do for next year's butterflies.
What to plant for them is in the Louisiana native plants guide
Trees This Month
December strips Louisiana's bottomland and swamp forests bare, revealing the architecture of trunk and form, while the state's many evergreens hold the color. The last bald cypress needles have fallen, leaving the state tree's bare gray ranks and knees standing over the dark Atchafalaya water for the winter, joined by the bare water tupelo, sweetgum, oaks, and sycamore glowing pale along the river bottoms. The American beech clutches its bleached marcescent leaves.
The evergreens define the winter landscape. The glossy Southern magnolia, the state flower, holds deep green statewide, and across the north the loblolly, longleaf, shortleaf, and slash pines stand dark over the hills and savannas. Along the coast and bayous the great moss-draped live oaks keep their leaves, joined by American holly, yaupon, and wax myrtle, their berries feeding the wintering birds. Buds are already set on the red maples, their swelling red clusters promising that Louisiana's earliest spring is only weeks away.
The Louisiana native plants guide covers what grows with them
Weather & Daylight
Across Louisiana, a typical December day averages a high near 62°F and a low near 42°F, with about 5.2 inches of precipitation — statewide averages from the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals.
Winter chill returns with 62-degree days and cold 42-degree nights, rain falling often under gray, quiet skies.
| Average high | 62°F |
|---|---|
| Average low | 42°F |
| Precipitation | 5.2 in |
| Sunrise (mid-month) | 6:58 CT |
| Sunset (mid-month) | 17:07 CT |
Figures are statewide averages over the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals; local conditions vary with elevation and distance from the coast. Sunrise and sunset are computed for a midstate point on the 15th (CT).
Next month's version of this page, by email
One short note when Louisiana's next month turns — what's arriving, blooming, and worth a night outside.
Go deeper with the Louisiana guides
The complete Louisiana birding, native-plant, and night-sky references — or the whole year, week by week, in one book.
Same month elsewhere: December in Maine · December in Maryland · December in Massachusetts