2024 Winter Solstice Date. So, what is the winter solstice, and why does it happen? The winter solstice 2024 will occur on december 21st, bringing with it the shortest day and longest night of the year.

The first day of winter officially arrives on dec. In the illustration above, the angular distance on the sky at the meridian between the celestial equator (the projection of the earth’s equator onto the sky) and the ecliptic (the plane of the solar system) is exactly equal.