How many days until winter
Count down to the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the December solstice, with the exact time left.
The event time is read in this zone. “Your time zone” uses this device’s clock.
Pick the date of your event
Enter a date (and a time if you have one) to start the countdown. You can save it to come back to it.
Time left
Christmas
Exact time
In numbers
Days are calendar days: today does not count and the day of the event does.
Coming up
My events
You have not saved any yet. In “My event” you can create a countdown and save it: it stays on this device only.
My live countdowns
Your saved countdowns, all ticking at once. Select one to see it large.
How it counts
We use the date and time of your device, or the time zone you choose under “Time zone”, so you can count down to an event in another country. If you change the zone, the countdown adjusts by itself. Events you save stay in this browser and are not sent anywhere.How to use it
- Pick a date from the list (Christmas, New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, July 4th, and more) or switch to “My event”.
- In “My event”, type a name, a date, and optionally a time. Turn on “Repeat every year” for birthdays and anniversaries.
- Read the calendar days left, the exact time ticking live, and how many of those days fall Monday through Friday.
- Save the event to find it again, select “Full screen” to show it on a screen, or select “Copy link” to share the same countdown.
- Under “My live countdowns” you see every saved event ticking at once. “Embed on a site” copies a code to paste the countdown into another page, and you can turn on a sound for when it reaches zero.
Frequently asked questions
When does winter start?
Astronomical winter starts on the December solstice, on December 21 or 22. Meteorological winter always starts on December 1.
What date is the first day of winter in 2026, 2027, and 2028?
In 2026 it falls on Monday, December 21; in 2027, on Tuesday, December 21; and in 2028, on Thursday, December 21.
Countdown to the first day of winter
The clock shows calendar days and the exact time until 12:00 AM on the day of the December solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The date is for U.S. Eastern Time and can shift by a day elsewhere, so the page marks it as an estimate.
The solstice lands just before Christmas. If you are counting down to the holidays, add Christmas to your saved countdowns in the countdown clock and watch both together.
Updated on October 1, 2026