--- title: Full Moon to Rise on Christmas For First Time Since 1977 description: A full moon will light up the night sky on Christmas for the first time since 1977, a NASA spokesperson said. canonical: https://time.com/4146840/full-moon-christmas/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-12T20:06:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T08:58:11.501Z article:section: Science og:title: Full Moon to Rise on Christmas For First Time Since 1977 og:description: It won't happen again until 2034 og:url: https://time.com/4146840/full-moon-christmas/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55ffabbac12e5e08/69887524196cf434c5039714/gettyimages-459250859.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Moon over a Christmas tree og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Full Moon to Rise on Christmas For First Time Since 1977 twitter:description: It won't happen again until 2034 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55ffabbac12e5e08/69887524196cf434c5039714/gettyimages-459250859.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Full Moon to Rise on Christmas for First Time Since 1977  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 12, 2015 8:06 PM UTC  A full moon will light up the night sky on Christmas for the first time since 1977. A full moon will light up the night sky on Christmas for the first time since 1977.RJ Sangosti—The Denver Post/Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 12, 2015 8:06 PM UTC Rudolph can [retire his red nose for the night.](http://abcnews.go.com/US/full-moon-light-christmas-time-1977/story?id=35724307) A full moon will light up the night sky on Christmas for the first time since 1977, a NASA spokesperson told ABC News. The celestial phenomenon won’t happen again on Christmas until 2034, NASA said. The full moon will reach its peak at 6:11 a.m. E.T., according to ABC. The last full moon of the year in December is called the Full Cold Moon, although it is also known as the Moon before Yule, according to the [Farmers’ Almanac](http://farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names/). It has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low sun, the Farmers’ Almanac said. \[[_ABC_](http://abcnews.go.com/US/full-moon-light-christmas-time-1977/story?id=35724307)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4146840/full-moon-christmas/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4146840/full-moon-christmas/"},"headline":"Full Moon to Rise on Christmas for First Time Since 1977","datePublished":"2015-12-12T20:06:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:58:11.501Z","description":"It won't happen again until 2034","url":"https://time.com/4146840/full-moon-christmas/","keywords":["Space"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55ffabbac12e5e08/69887524196cf434c5039714/gettyimages-459250859.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55ffabbac12e5e08/69887524196cf434c5039714/gettyimages-459250859.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Moon over a Christmas tree","caption":"A full moon will light up the night sky on Christmas for the first time since 1977.","creditText":"RJ Sangosti—The Denver Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4146840/full-moon-christmas/","name":"Full Moon to Rise on Christmas for First Time Since 1977"}}]}] ```