Winter Solstice 2024: What to Know About the Year's Shortest Day

The winter solstice arrives Saturday, December 21st, at 4:20 a.m. Eastern time, bringing the shortest day and longest night of the year to the Northern Hemisphere—ideal conditions for holiday lights and winter celebrations.

For those craving more daylight, there's good news ahead: Starting Sunday, days will get a little bit longer in the Northern Hemisphere every single day until late June. Those in the Southern Hemisphere are experiencing the opposite—their summer begins as our winter arrives.

These annual changes in sunlight as Earth revolves around the sun have been well known to humans for centuries. Monuments such as Stonehenge in England and the Torreon at Peru's Machu Picchu were designed in part to align with solstices.

Here's what to know about how Earth's march around the sun affects our seasons.

What Makes The Winter Solstice Happen?