New Jersey Nature Guide: December 2026
Data updated: August 2026Sources & method · Corrections
December brings winter to New Jersey — short, cold days and the longest nights of the year. The bays and ocean hold their wintering ducks and loons, feeders fill with hardy residents, and the Christmas Bird Count season brings birders out to tally the season's specialties from Cape May to the Highlands.
Week by week in December
December 3–9
- Feeders fill with chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, cardinals, and juncos as the cold deepens and birds depend on them most.
- Winter markets lean on the larder — storage roots, winter squash, cold-stored apples, and fresh cranberries for the holiday table.
- Orion climbs the eastern sky after dark, his belt pointing down to brilliant Sirius, with the Winter Hexagon filling the south.
December 10–16
- The Geminid meteor shower peaks around December 14, the year's richest, sending up to 100-plus bright meteors per hour from Gemini all evening.
- The Barnegat jetties shelter wintering harlequin ducks and purple sandpipers, and long-tailed ducks and scoters ride the bays.
- The Pine Barrens pitch pine and dense Atlantic white cedar hold their green, and holly boughs are gathered for the holidays.
December 17–23
- Christmas Bird Count season brings birders out across the state, with Cape May's count among the most famous in the country.
- The winter solstice around December 21 marks the longest night, and the minor Ursid meteors radiate from the Little Dipper.
- The garden rests — protect mulched perennials and garlic, and turn to seed catalogs and planning for the year ahead.
December 24–31
- Short-eared owls and northern harriers quarter the salt marshes at dusk, and rafts of brant, scoters, and loons winter along the coast.
- Held color carries the landscape — winterberry and American holly berries, red-osier dogwood stems, and the blue fruit of red cedar feed wintering birds.
- The cold, dry air gives crystal clarity from the Pine Barrens, with Orion, the Pleiades, and Taurus filling the long winter nights.
Birds This Month
December settles New Jersey into its winter birding rhythm, and the long-running Christmas Bird Counts — Cape May's among the most famous in the country — bring birders out across the state. Feeders draw the hardy residents: black-capped chickadees, tufted titmice, white-breasted nuthatches, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, northern cardinals, dark-eyed juncos, and white-throated sparrows, with purple finches and siskins in irruption years.
The coast is the winter highlight. The bays and ocean hold long-tailed ducks, scoters, brant, common and red-throated loons, buffleheads, and goldeneye, and the Barnegat jetties shelter harlequin ducks and purple sandpipers. Snowy owls hunt the dunes at Island Beach in good years, short-eared owls and northern harriers quarter the marshes at dusk, and bald eagles and snow geese concentrate on the Delaware Bay marshes.
This month's tip: join or follow a local Christmas Bird Count, and keep feeders stocked and a water source open as the cold deepens — it's when birds depend on them most.
What's Blooming
Nothing blooms outdoors in a New Jersey December — the season of flowers is over, and the landscape is held color and structure now. The scarlet berries of winterberry holly blaze against the gray of the leafless wetlands, the glossy leaves and red berries of American holly stand out on the coastal plain and at Sandy Hook, and the crimson stems of red-osier dogwood light the wet edges. Bittersweet, rose hips, and the blue fruit of red cedar persist in the thickets, feeding wintering birds.
The blue-green of Atlantic white cedar and the pitch pines hold the Pine Barrens, and the russet plumes of little bluestem and the dry seed heads of goldenrod, asters, and milkweed catch the low winter sun. Indoors, this is the season of forced amaryllis and paperwhites, holiday greens, and the catalog-dreaming weeks when gardeners begin to plan the year ahead.
Garden This Month
December gardening in New Jersey is mostly winter preparation and planning. Make sure tender perennials, the garlic bed, and fall plantings are well mulched against the cold and the freeze-thaw heaving that does the most damage here. Water evergreens and recent plantings during any extended dry, mild spell before the ground freezes hard, since winter desiccation kills more evergreens than cold. Knock heavy, wet snow gently off arborvitae, boxwood, and holly to prevent breakage, but leave the dry, fluffy stuff.
This is the safe dormant window to prune deciduous trees and shrubs on a mild day, when their structure is bare and visible — but wait on oaks until the deepest cold to avoid oak wilt. Otherwise, the work moves indoors: clean and oil tools, inventory and order seeds for next year, and start planning the beds. Protect any cold-frame or hoop-house greens, and enjoy the catalog-dreaming season as the garden rests.
Zone 6a (northwestern Highlands): the garden is fully dormant and the ground is freezing or frozen — leave mulch and any snow over perennials and garlic as insulation, and turn to planning, seed-ordering, and tool maintenance.
Zone 7a (central & southern New Jersey): beds are dormant — protect marginal perennials, harvest the last cold-hardy greens under cover, and use mild days to mulch, finish cleanup, and prune dormant deciduous trees.
Zone 7b (southern shore & Cape May): the mildest gardens may still yield cold-hardy greens under cover or in cold frames — keep them protected, mulch well, and otherwise turn to winter planning and tool care.
What's at the Farmers Market
December markets in New Jersey are winter markets now, mostly indoor and holiday-focused, leaning on the storage harvest. The durable crops fill the tables: storage onions, garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, cabbage, and winter squash, all cured and keeping for months, plus cold-sweetened Brussels sprouts, kale, collards, and spinach from the field and hoop houses.
Local apples from cold storage are still crisp and eating well, fresh cranberries from the Pine Barrens are on hand for the holidays, and apple cider rounds out the season. Look for honey, eggs, preserves, holiday greens, and wreaths from local growers. Store roots in a cool, dark, humid place and squash somewhere cool and dry, and they'll outlast the deepest cold; keep apples cold and separate from other produce. The market is quiet but the larder is full — the Garden State's harvest carrying through to the new year.
Night Sky This Month
December has New Jersey's longest nights and the return of the brilliant winter sky, capped by the year's best meteor shower. The Geminid meteor shower peaks around December 14, the richest and most reliable of the year, sending up to 100-plus bright, often colorful meteors per hour from Gemini, high in the east by mid-evening — and unlike most showers, the Geminids are good all evening, not just before dawn.
The winter solstice around December 21 marks the longest night and the sun's lowest noon. Orion climbs the eastern sky after dark, his belt pointing down to brilliant Sirius, with the Pleiades, Taurus, and the bright Winter Hexagon filling the south. The Ursid meteor shower adds a minor display near the solstice, radiating from the Little Dipper.
The cold, dry air gives crystal clarity from the Pine Barrens or the southern shore, and dark comes by late afternoon. Exact planet positions and this year's Geminid details (the Moon's phase is key) vary year to year — the printable New Jersey night-sky guide carries the specifics for your area.
Butterflies & Pollinators
There are no butterflies on the wing in a New Jersey December — the cold has ended the season entirely. The summer's butterflies are dispersed across the frozen landscape in their dormant overwintering forms: monarchs are thousands of miles south in the oyamel fir forests of central Mexico, while the species that winter here wait out the cold as eggs, chrysalides, or sheltering adults. Mourning cloaks spend the season as adults wedged behind loose bark and in woodpiles, their natural antifreeze letting them survive the deep freezes so they can fly on the first warm days of late winter — sometimes over lingering snow. The Pine Barrens pine elfins wait as chrysalides among the pitch pines for their brief spring flight. This is the quiet time to plan a butterfly garden for next year, choosing native milkweed for monarchs and a long succession of nectar plants, and to leave leaf litter and standing stems undisturbed to shelter the dormant butterflies until the warmth returns.
What to plant for them is in the New Jersey native plants guide
Trees This Month
New Jersey's trees are fully dormant in December, and the evergreens carry the winter landscape. On the coastal plain and at Sandy Hook, the glossy, red-berried American holly stands out in some of the Northeast's largest natural holly forests, and the aromatic eastern red cedar dots the old fields with blue berries. In the Pine Barrens, the pitch pine, shortleaf pine, and dense, blue-green Atlantic white cedar hold the swamps and plains green, and the Highlands keep their eastern white pine and eastern hemlock.
The bare deciduous trees are at their most readable: the broad crowns of the state tree, the northern red oak, and the stout white oak; the shaggy strips of shagbark hickory; the white mottled upper trunks of sycamore along the rivers; and the tan, clinging marcescent leaves of American beech and young oaks rattling in the cold. The holly and pine boughs, gathered for the holidays, are the season's traditional green.
The New Jersey native plants guide covers what grows with them
Weather & Daylight
Across New Jersey, a typical December day averages a high near 45°F and a low near 28°F, with about 4.3 inches of precipitation — statewide averages from the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals.
Winter settles in again, gray and chilly with mid-40s days, freezing nights, and the year's heaviest bout of rain or snow.
| Average high | 45°F |
|---|---|
| Average low | 28°F |
| Precipitation | 4.3 in |
| Sunrise (mid-month) | 7:14 ET |
| Sunset (mid-month) | 16:33 ET |
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 (ET).
Next month's version of this page, by email
One short note when New Jersey's next month turns — what's arriving, blooming, and worth a night outside.
Go deeper with the New Jersey guides
The complete New Jersey birding, native-plant, and night-sky references — or the whole year, week by week, in one book.
Same month elsewhere: December in New Mexico · December in New York · December in North Carolina