Orlando in December: Weather, Rain Days, Crowds, Hotel Tax and Manatee Springs

FLORIDA · ORLANDO · DECEMBER

Orlando in December runs on cool mornings and mild afternoons. The official 1991–2020 normals put the average high at 73.8°F and the average low at 52.9°F. The Atlantic hurricane season closes on November 30, so the whole month sits outside it. If Orlando is already the plan, what is left to settle is the date: how cold the evenings get, how often it rains, and whether November or January would serve you better.

Winter is also manatee season at the springs north of the city. The animals gather there because water discharging from the Upper Floridan aquifer stays relatively warm while the surrounding rivers cool. Blue Spring State Park, near Orange City, is the winter manatee spring, and the nearest swimming spring to Orlando, Wekiwa, holds its water in the mid-70s all year.

On this page

• Orlando weather in December73.8°F highs, 52.9°F lows, 3.7 rain days
• How cold Orlando gets at night in DecemberA 20.9°F day-night gap and 0.3 frost night
• Crowds, park tickets and hotel tax in DecemberDate-priced tickets and the 6.0% county tax
• Things to do in Orlando in DecemberBlue Spring manatees, Wekiwa and Rock Springs
• A two-day Orlando itinerary for DecemberSprings first, then a park, before a 5:32 p.m. sunset
• Orlando in November or January instead?How the three months compare on heat and rain
• Is December a good time to visit Orlando?Who December suits, and who should shift a month

Most visitors fly into MCO, Orlando International, the busiest airport in Florida with 27,859,783 passengers boarded in 2024, ahead of Miami. Sanford (SFB), north of MCO, boarded 1.4 million. We could not verify how far SFB sits from the parks because the airport’s site blocked our connection, so we give no drive time. From South Florida, Brightline covers about 235 miles from Miami in roughly three and a half hours, with departures about every two hours and fares that move by date. Our Florida flights guide and getting-around guide carry the rest.

Orlando weather in December: average highs, lows and rain days

Every air figure here is a station normal: NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information averaged 1991 to 2020 at station USW00012815, the thermometer at Orlando International Airport. A real instrument on the ground gives firmer footing than a grid-cell reanalysis. It stands at the airport, though, and we did not measure the air at the parks or at the springs north of town. The December average high there is 73.8°F, the average low 52.9°F, and the month collects 2.48 inches of precipitation.

Measurable rain, 0.10 inch or more, falls on 3.7 days of an average December, roughly one day in eight. Over a seven-night stay that comes to a little under one wet day, so a single movable day in the plan covers the average. A true downpour of an inch or more is rarer, at 0.7 day in an average December. Keep one park day or indoor booking flexible and pack a light rain shell.

From the 52.9°F dawn to the 73.8°F afternoon, the thermometer climbs about 21 degrees on an average December day. Shorts can work by early afternoon, but a park gate or a spring parking lot at sunrise calls for long pants and a fleece or light jacket that folds into a daypack. Add closed shoes for the morning and a dry layer for the evening after a swim.

On December 15 Orlando gets about 10 hours 23 minutes of daylight. The sun rises at 7:09 a.m. and sets at 5:32 p.m. Eastern, so dusk arrives before most dinner reservations. Boardwalk walks and paddles on the Wekiwa belong in the hours before 5 p.m.

How warm is Orlando in December?

Afternoons average 73.8°F and dawns 52.9°F, a gap of 20.9°F. Spring water north of town sits above that whole range: the USGS gauge at Wekiwa Springs read 75.6°F on September 11, 2026, and spring water holds steady through the year while the air changes. On an average December afternoon, the water in Wekiwa’s swimming area runs 1.8°F warmer than the air above it.

Mornings call for a jacket over a T-shirt, and by early afternoon the T-shirt alone usually does. For a swim, the exit matters more than the entry: you climb out of 75.6°F water into air that tops out near 73.8°F and sits well below that before noon. A towel and a dry sweatshirt belong in the bag, and an early-afternoon swim, near the day’s high, keeps the chill shortest.

Freezing nights happen but stay rare. An average December counts 0.3 night at 32°F or below at the airport station, about one such night every three Decembers. If a cold snap shows up in the forecast for your dates, move the sunrise plans later and pack a warm hat for the first hour at a park.

How busy is Orlando in December? Crowds and prices

December comes after the Atlantic hurricane season, which ends on November 30, and well before March, when family school holidays fill the theme parks. Those two calendar facts are solid. We found no hotel-rate or occupancy series for Orlando in December, so we crown no week cheap or crowded and make no claim about where room rates land in the year.

With the storm season closed, a December booking carries no hurricane clause to weigh. We found no booking-window data, so we give no count of weeks. Disney and Universal price tickets dynamically by date, and a figure written today goes stale within weeks, so we print no ticket price and send you to the operators. Our Florida overview sets four to seven nights for an Orlando trip, and the Florida trip-cost guide covers budgets.

Orange County, where Orlando and the parks sit, levies a 6.0% transient rental tax, filed and paid together with Florida’s 6% state sales tax. We did not verify any further local surtax, so read those two lines as the floor of what gets added to a room rate, before any resort fee.

If one budget line deserves extra money in December, make it a rental car. Wekiwa and Rock Springs sit near Apopka and Blue Spring near Orange City, all outside the city. SunRail’s schedule names no airport and no theme-park station, and we did not verify a LYNX route to any of the three springs. See our getting-around guide for car and toll advice.

Things to do in Orlando in December

In the winter months manatees move to the springs, where aquifer water stays relatively warm while the surrounding river cools. Blue Spring State Park is the winter manatee spring, a reason to visit that the warm months do not offer. We verified no per-spring manatee count, so we promise no number of animals, only the season they gather in. For in-water encounters elsewhere, see our manatee guide.

Blue Spring counts 187 parking spaces, 3,050 feet of boardwalk (the longest at any spring park in the state’s 2024 inventory), three observation platforms and six cabins. Its gauge read 74.3°F and 168 cubic feet per second on September 11, 2026. Wekiwa Springs State Park, the nearest spring to Orlando, has 325 parking spaces, one designated swimming area, one canoe, kayak and tube launch, 15.9 miles of paddling trail, 13.7 miles of hiking trail and 1,435 feet of boardwalk. Rock Springs, the tubing run at Kelly Park, read 75.0°F the same day.

Those water readings date from September, and they still apply in December because spring water does not follow the calendar. The air does. A 52.9°F December dawn sits 22.7°F below Wekiwa’s 75.6°F, and even the 73.8°F afternoon stays under it. That gap is what draws the manatees, and for a paddler it means a warm layer at the launch in the morning.

We could not verify entrance fees or opening hours at any of these parks. The state parks site refused our reads, and fees vary by park and by season, so we list nothing as free and suggest checking with each park before you drive. Parking capacity is what we do have: 325 spaces at Wekiwa, 187 at Blue Spring, 278 at Lake Louisa State Park, 30 at Rock Springs Run State Reserve and 1,686 at Silver Springs State Park, the glass-bottom-boat spring.

Orlando in December: a two-day itinerary

Start day one at sunrise, 7:09 a.m. on December 15, in the jacket a 52.9°F average low calls for, and head for Blue Spring State Park early, since its lot holds 187 cars. Confirm its opening time first, because we could not read park hours. Walk the 3,050-foot boardwalk and the three observation platforms through the cool morning. After lunch, drive to Wekiwa Springs for a swim in 75.6°F water near the 73.8°F afternoon high, and be off the paddling trail before the 5:32 p.m. sunset.

Give day two to a theme park on a ticket priced for that date, with a jacket for the gate over a T-shirt for the afternoon. If one of December’s 3.7 wet days lands on day one, swap the two so the boardwalk and the swim get the dry one. On LYNX, the bus network of Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties, ask the driver for the All-Day Pass before putting money in the farebox: $4.50, or $2.25 at the discount fare, valid from 4:00 a.m. until 3:00 a.m. the next day. Our Florida with kids guide helps with park-day pacing.

Orlando in December vs November and January

November runs warmer and drier, at 78.3°F highs, 58.2°F lows and 1.79 inches over 3.0 wet days. January runs cooler, at 71.8°F and 49.5°F, with the same 2.48 inches as December spread over 4.0 days. December sits 4.5°F below November’s high and 2.0°F above January’s. The springs read the same in all three. We found no sea-temperature series for Orlando in any of these months, since the city is inland, so the water figures we give are the USGS spring gauges.

Shifting four weeks earlier gains 4.5°F in the afternoon, 5.3°F at night and 0.7 fewer wet days, but Orlando in November still falls inside the hurricane season until the 30th. Shifting four weeks later costs 2.0°F on the high and 3.4°F on the low and adds 0.3 wet day, while Orlando in January stays in the winter months when manatees gather at the springs.

Is December a good time to visit Orlando?

Yes, for families and couples who want park days under a 73.8°F average high, spring boardwalks in manatee season and a trip with no hurricane clause. No, for anyone whose plan hangs on hot pool or beach afternoons: evenings outdoors at a 52.9°F average low need a jacket, and the early sunset at 5:32 p.m. shortens the warm part of the day.

Those travelers should look at November, the warmest of the three months at a 78.3°F average high and the driest at 3.0 wet days, and book refundable, because the hurricane season runs until November 30. Our Florida best-time guide covers the other months of the year.

December is the first month clear of the hurricane season that still averages 2.0°F warmer afternoons than January, in the same winter window that brings manatees to Blue Spring.

The last word

Pick December for the springs and the mild park days, then pick the exact week by the ticket price Disney or Universal shows for it. One practical detail before you finalize a combined trip: Orlando keeps Eastern time, and the western Panhandle, from Pensacola to Destin and Panama City, runs on Central, an hour behind. Drive east from a South Walton beach toward the parks and the clock jumps forward an hour, so a 5:32 p.m. Orlando sunset reads 4:32 p.m. on a Panhandle watch.

Sources & data for this guide

• December, November and January normals (highs, lows, precipitation, rain days, freezing nights) · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991–2020, station USW00012815, Orlando International Airport · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Daylight, sunrise and sunset on Dec 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, UTC converted to Eastern Standard Time · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Hurricane season dates · NOAA National Hurricane Center · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Spring water temperatures and Blue Spring flow · USGS National Water Information System, stations 02234600, 02234610 and 02235500, instantaneous readings · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Park parking, boardwalks, trails, launches and cabins · Florida DEP Recreational Facilities Inventory, 2024 annual report · checked Sep 11 and Sep 21, 2026
• Why manatees gather at springs in winter · Southwest Florida Water Management District, springs hydrology report, 2001, revised 2011 · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Orange County transient rental tax · Florida Department of Revenue, form DR-15TDT · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Airport boardings · Federal Aviation Administration, CY2024 · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Brightline route, distance and frequency · gobrightline.com · checked Sep 24, 2026 · fares move by date, so we give none
• LYNX fares and All-Day Pass rules, SunRail stations · official LYNX and SunRail pages · checked Sep 24, 2026 · SunRail prints no fare, so we give none
• Eastern and Central time boundary · 49 CFR 71.5(f) · checked Sep 24, 2026
• What we could not verify: state-park hours and entrance fees (floridastateparks.org refused our reads), manatee counts per spring, the SFB drive to the parks (flysfb.com blocked us), December hotel rates and any local tax beyond the two 6% lines. Theme-park prices are left to Disney and Universal, who set them by date.

To plan your stay

• Things to Do in Orlando Beyond the Theme Parks: Springs, Manatees and LYNX Fares
• Orlando Airport to the City: MCO or Sanford, LYNX Fares, Brightline Times
• Best Time to Visit Orlando: Month-by-Month Weather, Summer Heat and the Quiet Weeks
• Orlando in January: Weather, Crowds, Prices and Things to Do

Nearby places

• Universal Orlando: Three Parks, Epic Universe and How Many Days You Need
• SeaWorld Orlando: Animal Experiences, Tours and What a Day Holds
• Walt Disney World: The Four Parks, What Each One Holds and How Many Days