New Mexico Nature Guide: December 2026
Data updated: August 2026Sources & method · Corrections
December holds the winter crane spectacle on the Rio Grande while delivering the longest, darkest, clearest nights of the New Mexico year — the Geminid meteor shower over the dark deserts is a highlight. The bosque stands bare, the pecans and red chile fill the holiday markets, and the high peaks gather snow.
Week by week in December
December 3–9
- The crane and goose spectacle at Bosque del Apache is in full winter swing; bald eagles patrol the river ice edges.
- December nights are the longest of the year, and the dry desert air makes for some of New Mexico's clearest stargazing.
- Mesilla Valley pecans are at full peak for the holidays; stored apples and dried chile round out the winter markets.
- Prune dormant fruit trees on mild days and keep frost cloth ready for the tender greens in southern gardens.
December 10–16
- The Geminid meteor shower peaks around December 14, the richest shower of the year, brilliant under the dark high-desert skies.
- Christmas Bird Counts begin across the state, tallying wintering cranes, geese, ducks, and raptors along the Rio Grande.
- Holiday markets feature pecans, piñon in a good year, dried red chile, and ristras for winter cooking.
- Piñon and ponderosa scent the cold air; the bare bosque cottonwoods stand silver against the snow on the peaks.
December 17–23
- Sandhill cranes and snow geese hold at their winter peak; the dawn and dusk flights at the Bosque are unforgettable in the cold light.
- Around the solstice the nights reach their longest; Orion, Taurus, and the Pleiades blaze overhead through the dark hours.
- A quiet week for tool care, seed orders, and planning next year's chile and tomato varieties by the fire.
- Mourning cloaks wait out the cold tucked under bark and in woodpiles, ready to emerge on the first warm winter day.
December 24–31
- Winter birding peaks — cranes and snow geese at the Bosque, bald eagles on the river, and rosy-finches at high-mountain feeders.
- The long, cold, dry nights close the year with brilliant skies; Sirius follows Orion up the southeastern horizon.
- Pecans, dried chile, ristras, and stored apples carry the markets through the close of the year.
- The evergreen piñon, juniper, and ponderosa hold the only green as the bare cottonwoods await spring along the river.
Birds This Month
December is deep winter birding in New Mexico, and the crane spectacle is in full swing. Sandhill cranes and snow geese hold at their winter peak at Bosque del Apache and along the Middle Rio Grande, roosting on the refuge ponds and lifting off at dawn in their famous roaring clouds — the dusk fly-in to roost, with thousands of birds returning against a winter sunset, is unforgettable. Bald eagles patrol the river and the reservoir edges, hunting the wintering waterfowl.
This is Christmas Bird Count season, and counts across the state tally the wintering cranes, geese, ducks, raptors, and songbirds, with New Mexico's counts among the most productive in the interior West. The open eastern plains and Estancia Valley hold ferruginous and rough-legged hawks and prairie falcons, and the high mountain crests draw the sought-after rosy-finches (brown-capped, gray-crowned, and black) to feeders at places like Sandia Crest.
At feeders across the state, dark-eyed juncos, white-crowned sparrows, and house and Cassin's finches crowd the seed, alongside the resident greater roadrunner sunning on cold mornings and the desert quail.
This month's tip: bundle up and stay for the dusk fly-in at the Bosque, or join a local Christmas Bird Count. A cold, clear December evening on the Rio Grande, with cranes silhouetted against the sunset, is the New Mexico winter at its most magical.
What's Blooming
December is the deepest, quietest point of the New Mexico flower year, with the growing season fully closed under cold nights and the high country deep in snow. There is essentially no wildflower bloom anywhere in the state, and the landscape is at its most spare — but the structure and the evergreens hold their winter character.
The dried remnants of the year carry on. The bleached gold of spent rabbitbrush (chamisa), the dark seed heads of sunflowers and asters, and the tan grasses stand along the roadsides and arroyos, feeding the wintering juncos and sparrows. The evergreen desert shrubs — silver fourwing saltbush, resinous creosote bush, and the gray-green soaptree yucca rosettes — provide the only living green on the desert floor, standing against the cold and the occasional dusting of snow.
Where to see it: December is a month for form, not flower. Walk the desert and grassland and notice the architecture of the dried seed heads against the snow, the silver of the saltbush, and the dark green of the yucca and creosote. The flower season will not stir again until the warm southern deserts wake in late winter, so December is the landscape at rest.
Garden This Month
December is the rest-and-planning month in the New Mexico garden, with the active growing season closed across the state. The work is mostly protective and preparatory. Make sure the winter defenses are in place — mulch on perennials, asparagus, and young trees; trunk wraps on young fruit and shade trees to prevent the winter sun-scald that the state's intense, dry winter sun causes; and the irrigation fully drained against hard freezes. On mild days, prune dormant fruit trees, grapes, and shade trees while the structure is clearly visible.
In the warm southern valleys, the gardening year barely pauses: keep harvesting cool-season greens under row cover, and begin the dormant-season planting of bare-root pecans and fruit trees. Across the state, December is the ideal time to plan — order chile, tomato, and pepper seeds before the popular New Mexico varieties sell out, start the slowest crops like onions and leeks indoors under lights in the south, and clean and oil tools by the fire. The quiet of December is exactly when next year's garden takes shape.
Zone 7a (Albuquerque, mid-elevation valleys): the garden is at rest — finish mulching perennials, check that young tree trunks are wrapped against winter sun-scald, and make sure irrigation is fully drained. Prune dormant fruit trees on mild days, and order chile and tomato seeds for the year ahead.
Zone 8a (lower southern valleys): the milder south keeps tough cool-season greens going under row cover on freeze nights. Plant the first bare-root fruit and pecan trees on mild days, prune dormant fruit, and protect tender plants from hard freezes.
Zone 8b (Mesilla Valley / Las Cruces): the warmest corner can keep harvesting cool-season greens and start the dormant-season work — plant bare-root pecans and fruit trees, prune deciduous fruit, and start onions and slow seeds indoors for the long season ahead.
What's at the Farmers Market
December markets in New Mexico run on the holiday harvest of nuts, chile, and storage crops. The Mesilla Valley pecan is at its festive peak — the fresh Las Cruces crop is prized for holiday baking and gifts, and the rich nuts keep for months when refrigerated or frozen in-shell. Choose heavy, clean, unblemished nuts and store them cold to protect the oils.
The red chile is central to the winter kitchen. Dried red chile pods, ground powder, and the hanging ristras are everywhere for the holiday cooking season; choose deep-red, fully dry, intact pods and keep ristras cool, dry, and out of direct sun. Northern New Mexico apples from the Velarde and Dixon orchards are in storage and still crisp — keep them cold and apart from other produce. In a good mast year, piñon nuts are a treasured holiday treat at the markets, gathered from the wild piñon woodlands.
The keeping vegetables round out the winter offerings: hard winter squash, root vegetables, and cold-sweetened greens from hoop houses. Store squash in a dry, ventilated spot, refrigerate the greens and roots, and shop the Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Las Cruces holiday markets for the pecans, piñon, apples, and chile that define a New Mexico winter table.
Night Sky This Month
December delivers the longest, darkest nights of the year to New Mexico, and the cold, dry winter air makes for some of the clearest, most spectacular stargazing in North America. The state's International Dark Sky places — Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Clayton Lake State Park with its observatory, the Gila's Cosmic Campground, Capulin Volcano, and the Bootheel ranchland — offer genuinely black skies, with full darkness arriving by early evening for easy winter viewing.
The brilliant winter constellations dominate. Orion the Hunter rides high in the south by mid-evening, his three-star belt pointing down to Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, and up to reddish Aldebaran in the V-shaped face of Taurus. The orange shoulder of Betelgeuse, the blue-white blaze of Rigel, the tight knot of the Pleiades, and the twin stars of Gemini fill the sky, and the faint winter Milky Way arches overhead.
The Geminid meteor shower peaks around December 14, the richest and most reliable shower of the year, with bright, plentiful meteors radiating from Gemini — the dark high-desert skies make New Mexico a superb place to watch, weather permitting. Because the exact peak, the moon phase, and the planets' positions shift each year, check the printable New Mexico night-sky guide for this year's specific viewing nights and conditions from your latitude.
Butterflies & Pollinators
December is the quietest butterfly month in New Mexico, with the cold ending activity across nearly all of the state. The high country and central valleys hold no butterflies on the wing; the surviving species are overwintering as eggs, chrysalises, or dormant adults, waiting motionless for the warmth of next year. The growing-season abundance is a memory.
Even in deep winter, New Mexico's mild southern deserts keep a faint pulse of life that distinguishes them from the colder states. In the warmest Chihuahuan lowlands around Las Cruces and the Bootheel, an exceptionally warm and sunny December afternoon might rouse a single sleepy orange or a hardy sulphur, though such sightings are rare and brief. The mourning cloak waits out the cold as an adult, tucked deep into bark crevices, woodpiles, and canyon rock, ready to emerge on the first warm day of late winter.
To prepare for the season ahead: December is for protecting the overwinterers and planning next year's garden. Leave leaf litter, brush piles, and dried perennial stalks undisturbed to shelter the overwintering mourning cloaks and the eggs and chrysalises of other species, and use the quiet month to plan beds of native milkweed, globemallow, and a long nectar succession for the butterflies that will return as the deserts warm in spring.
What to plant for them is in the New Mexico native plants guide
Trees This Month
December shows the New Mexico tree world fully at winter rest, its bones exposed and its evergreens carrying the landscape. Along the Rio Grande, the great cottonwoods of the bosque stand bare and silver-gray, their massive leafless architecture etched over the cold river — the defining winter trees of the valley. The foothill Gambel oak hold their bare thickets, and the high-country quaking aspen stand white-barked against the deepening mountain snow.
The evergreens give the winter state its color and character. The two-needle piñon — the state tree — and the junipers cloak the foothills and mesas in dense gray-green, the piñon-juniper woodland scenting the cold air, and the tall ponderosa pines and the dark spruce, fir, and Douglas-fir of the high country hold the snowy mountains green. In the desert south, the creosote bush keeps its small resinous leaves while the mesquite stand bare and thorny. The trees wait out the cold and the short days, deep in the dormancy that will hold until the lower cottonwoods break bud again in the warm valleys of late winter.
The New Mexico native plants guide covers what grows with them
Weather & Daylight
Across New Mexico, a typical December day averages a high near 49°F and a low near 22°F, with about 0.8 inches of precipitation — statewide averages from the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals.
Deep winter chill sets in, highs near 49 and lows at 22, with steady light rain and short, gray days.
| Average high | 49°F |
|---|---|
| Average low | 22°F |
| Precipitation | 0.8 in |
| Sunrise (mid-month) | 7:05 MT |
| Sunset (mid-month) | 16:55 MT |
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 (MT).
Next month's version of this page, by email
One short note when New Mexico's next month turns — what's arriving, blooming, and worth a night outside.
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The complete New Mexico birding, native-plant, and night-sky references — or the whole year, week by week, in one book.
Same month elsewhere: December in New York · December in North Carolina · December in North Dakota