Where to Go Stargazing in December

December delivers the darkest nights of the year across every top aurora destination, and pairs it with the single best meteor shower on the calendar. It's the closest thing this list has to a genuine double feature.

Every major aurora pick clears the top score this month: Tromsø tops the list at 13.5 hours of darkness, with Abisko, Finnish Lapland, Iceland, Fairbanks, and Yellowknife all following within an hour of that. There's no clear "best" destination by the numbers alone this far north in December, mostly a choice of how cold you're willing to get and how much of the polar night you want to sit through. Book early if you can: December overlaps the holidays, and aurora lodges in these regions fill up months ahead.

The Geminids: December's headline shower

The Geminids peak around December 13 each year, the richest reliable shower of the year at a ZHR around 120, meaning a meteor every 30 seconds or so under a genuinely dark sky. Moon phase is what separates a great year from an average one, so check where the new moon falls relative to the 13th before you book. In years when the peak lands near a new moon, with only a thin crescent up in early evening, the entire night stays dark for meteor watching, and that combination of a strong shower and minimal moonlight is what makes the Geminids worth planning a trip around rather than just noting they happen every December.

The Ursids follow around December 22 each year, but treat this one as a bonus rather than a plan: the shower is modest at a ZHR around 10, and in years when the peak lands near a full moon, only the brightest meteors cut through.

For the Milky Way, Death Valley, Merzouga, and Big Bend hold the strongest scores this month at 10.9-11.2 hours of dark sky, with Jasper actually posting the longest single reading at 12.1 hours despite a lower overall score. La Palma, Tenerife, and AlUla round out the list. None of these compete with December's aurora numbers for sheer hours of darkness, but they're solid picks if aurora isn't the priority, or if you want a stargazing base further south than the Arctic circle.

None of the year's Geminids activity is listed for the southern hemisphere this month, so this is very much a northern hemisphere event. If you're planning a December trip and want both the aurora and the Geminids in the same window, our Northern Lights Season 2026-27 guide and a destination like Fairbanks Northern Lights or Northern Lights in Iceland both put you under dark enough skies for the shower too.