ORLANDO · DECEMBER · THE MONTH GUIDE
December ends Orlando’s sweaty half of the year. The 1991-2020 normals for the airport station put the average high at 73.8°F (23.2°C) and the average low at 52.9°F (11.6°C), with 2.48 inches of precipitation across the month. Measurable rain shows up on 3.7 days, counting only days that record a tenth of an inch or more, and the Atlantic hurricane season closed on November 30.
What the month takes back is daylight and elbow room. On December 15 the sun rises at 7:09 a.m. and sets at 5:32 p.m., leaving 10 hours 23 minutes between them, so an outdoor day finishes before dinner. The back half of the month is school-holiday territory, one of the two annual crowd peaks our Florida calendar flags. The first ten days and the last ten are close to two different trips.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · ORLANDO · DECEMBER
December hands Orlando 73.8°F afternoons, 3.7 rain days and a hurricane season already closed, at the cost of 52.9°F dawns, a 5:32 p.m. sunset and school-holiday crowds after the 20th.
HIGH 73.8°F · LOW 52.9°F · 3.7 RAIN DAYS · SUNSET 5:32 P.M. ON DEC 15
Go for: hiking and paddling weather at Wekiwa Springs, manatees gathering at Blue Spring, and a month sitting entirely outside the June 1 to November 30 hurricane season.
Think twice before: booking December 20 onward on a tight budget: that half is the school holiday, and every room carries Orange County’s 6% transient rental tax on top of 6% state sales tax.
Normals: NOAA NCEI station USW00012815 · Water: USGS gauges · Facilities: Florida DEP 2024 inventory · full sources at the end
On this page
- Orlando weather in December73.8°F days, 3.7 rain days
- What to wear in Orlando in DecemberA 20.9°F gap between dawn and mid-afternoon
- Hotel tax and booking lead time6% county, 6% state, and the December 20 split
- Things to do in December: springs and manateesWekiwa, Rock Springs, Blue Spring
- Two days in Orlando in DecemberA plan built around a 5:32 p.m. sunset
- Orlando in November vs December vs January78.3°F, 73.8°F, 71.8°F
- Is December a good time to visit Orlando?Who the month suits, and who should shift
No theme-park ticket price appears anywhere here, deliberately: Disney and Universal price by date, and an amount written in September is wrong by December. Buy from the operator, and treat the park days as the budget line that moves most. For the coasts in the same month, our month-by-month state calendar takes it from here.
Orlando weather in December: average highs, lows and rain days
| December at Orlando International | Normal | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Average high | 73.8°F (23.2°C) | 4.5°F below November |
| Average low | 52.9°F (11.6°C) | 3.4°F above January |
| Precipitation | 2.48 in | the same monthly total as January |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 3.7 | about one day in eight |
| Days with 1.00 in or more | 0.7 | a full soaking is not the norm |
| Nights at 32°F or below | 0.3 | frost is rare, not impossible |
| Daylight, Dec 15 | 10 h 23 min | sunrise 7:09 a.m., sunset 5:32 p.m. |
Every figure here comes from one thermometer rather than from a model. NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information publishes 1991-2020 monthly normals for station USW00012815, the gauge at Orlando International Airport, and those are the numbers in the table: 73.8°F by day, 52.9°F at night, 2.48 inches over the month. A grid-cell reanalysis of the same patch of central Florida would return slightly different values, the overnight low especially, so it is worth naming which kind you are reading.
Those 2.48 inches do not arrive politely spread. Only 3.7 days in an average December record a tenth of an inch or more, roughly one day in eight, and just 0.7 of a day reaches a full inch. The wet-season habit of a thunderstorm at four every afternoon belongs to May through October, as the state calendar lays out. In December, rain tends to arrive as a gray day rather than an hour of drama.
The spread between day and night is 20.9°F, and it decides what goes in the day bag. Walking out of a hotel at 7:30 a.m. means the 50s. Standing in the same spot at three in the afternoon means the low 70s. Carry a fleece you accept hauling around all afternoon, plus a light rain shell instead of an umbrella, given how few December days measure anything at all.
Sunrise on December 15 is 7:09 a.m. and sunset 5:32 p.m. Eastern. Orlando runs on Eastern time because it sits east of the Apalachicola River, under 49 CFR 71.5(f). The western Panhandle, Pensacola through Panama City, runs on Central and is an hour behind. Short days reshuffle a spring trip: the drive out has to start near first light, or the drive home starts in the dark.
How warm is Orlando in December? 73.8°F days, 52.9°F nights
Orlando’s December runs between 73.8°F and 52.9°F, 20.9 degrees apart, and both ends matter more than any single monthly average. These are 30-year normals rather than a forecast: individual afternoons run warmer, and a passing front drops the odd day well under 70°F. Set against November’s 78.3°F and January’s 71.8°F, December’s daytime figure is the middle value of the three.
In practice that is a two-wardrobe day. A 7 a.m. start wants long sleeves and something over them, a one o’clock walk wants a T-shirt, and the shed layer rides in a bag until the 5:30 return. Spring water sits near 75°F all year, so what decides a December swim is the air, and the air becomes agreeable from mid-morning on.
Freezing nights are counted, and the count is small: 0.3 nights at 32°F or below in an average December at the airport station. Call it a frost every few winters rather than an annual event. The practical consequence of a 52.9°F low sits in the rental listing, not on the trail: if the house pool matters to your December, confirm that heating is included before you book.
How busy is Orlando in December? Crowds, booking and the 12% room tax
Orlando’s December splits at the school calendar. The first ten days fall ahead of the holidays, and our Florida calendar counts that window among the year’s quieter ones. From roughly the 20th onward the state enters one of its two annual crowd peaks, the other being March, when family school holidays fill the parks while college spring break weighs on the beach towns. No occupancy series and no monthly rate table sit, so no ranking of room prices appears in it.
Booking behaves differently on either side of that split. For dates after December 20, the room, the rental car and the park days are the three things to settle early, and early means well before Thanksgiving. Flights land at one of two airports: MCO boarded 27,859,783 passengers in 2024, the busiest in Florida and ahead of Miami, while Sanford SFB boarded 1.4 million. SFB lies north of MCO. Its own site refuses our connections, so we verified no mileage and give none.
Orange County, home to Orlando and the parks, levies a 6.0% transient rental tax, filed and paid alongside the 6% state sales tax (Florida Department of Revenue, form DR-15TDT). That is 12% added to whatever the room costs, before any resort fee or parking charge the property tacks on. December quotes rarely show it until checkout, so fold it into the total yourself when comparing two hotels.
The line worth paying for in December is the car. LYNX, the bus network of Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties, charges $2.00 a ride, $1.00 at the discount fare, with free transfers, and an All-Day Pass at $4.50, $2.25 discounted, valid from 4:00 a.m. until 3:00 a.m. the next morning. LYNX prints one instruction in capitals: ask the operator for that pass before putting money in the farebox. SunRail, the commuter line, names no airport and no theme-park station on its schedule page, and its fares page prints no amount. For the springs, plan on driving, as our getting-around guide argues statewide.
Things to do in Orlando in December: the springs, the manatees and Wekiwa Springs State Park
Winter does one thing for Orlando that summer cannot: it brings the manatees into the spring runs. The Southwest Florida Water Management District sets out the mechanism plainly. Water discharging from the Upper Floridan aquifer stays relatively warm all year, and when the surrounding rivers cool, the animals move to the springs. The spring has not warmed. The river has cooled. That same 73.8°F afternoon turns 13.7 miles of hiking trail at Wekiwa into a comfortable day instead of an endurance test.
Wekiwa Springs State Park is the closest to the city. Florida DEP’s 2024 facilities inventory counts 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. Its USGS gauge read 75.6°F on September 11, 2026, the warmest of the swimmable Florida springs that network monitors. Rock Springs, the tubing run at Kelly Park, read 75.0°F the same day. Blue Spring State Park counts 187 parking spaces, 3,050 feet of boardwalk, three observation platforms and six cabins, its gauge at 74.3°F and 168 cubic feet per second.
Those water readings barely move across the year, and the air moves a great deal: a 52.9°F December dawn beside a 75°F spring is a gap of more than twenty degrees, which is the entire argument for coming now. The parking counts explain the other December constraint. Popular springs turn cars away on a busy morning with 325 spaces at Wekiwa and 187 at Blue Spring, against the 1,686 spaces and three launches at Silver Springs, an hour and a half of Florida away.
On what things cost inside the gate, we have to leave a hole. The Florida state parks site returns a 403 to our reads, so no entrance fee and no opening hour appears here, and no per-spring manatee count either, since we verified none. What is verified and free: a LYNX transfer, free with any paid ride, which is the only no-cost line this month produced that we can stand behind. Check fees with each park before you drive out.
Orlando in December: two-day itinerary and sunset times
Day one runs on the springs and the short day. Leave Orlando by 7:30 a.m., with sunrise at 7:09, and reach Wekiwa before the 325 spaces go. Walk a loop of the 13.7 miles of trail while the air is still in the 50s, swim from mid-morning once the air has caught up with the 75.6°F water, then take the launch and part of the 15.9-mile paddling trail through an early afternoon at 73.8°F. Be back on the road by four, since the light is gone at 5:32.
Day two heads north to Blue Spring for the manatees, early again, where 3,050 feet of boardwalk and three observation platforms spread a crowd along 187 spaces’ worth of arrivals. If a front turns up, and 3.7 December days bring a tenth of an inch or more, flip the order and give the day to the parks or to downtown, reached on a $4.50 LYNX All-Day Pass requested before you pay the fare. Keep the paddling for the clear morning.
Orlando in December vs November and January
| November | December | January | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 78.3°F | 73.8°F | 71.8°F |
| Average low | 58.2°F | 52.9°F | 49.5°F |
| Precipitation | 1.79 in | 2.48 in | 2.48 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 3.0 | 3.7 | 4.0 |
| Hurricane season | ends Nov 30 | outside it | outside it |
Side by side, the three months separate a couple of degrees at a time. November’s day runs 4.5°F warmer than December’s and its night 5.3°F warmer, on 1.79 inches of rain against 2.48. January gives up a further 2.0°F by day and 3.4°F at night, on the same 2.48 inches spread across 4.0 wet days instead of 3.7. Spring water is the constant in the table’s margin: the Wekiwa gauge does not follow the calendar, so the swim itself is identical in all three.
Shift four weeks earlier and you buy warmth and dryness, and you buy back the tail of a hurricane season that closes only on November 30. November also lands ahead of the holiday crowding. Shift four weeks later and January returns the quiet after its first week, at the price of 49.5°F nights and one more wet day. Manatee season holds through both.
Is December a good time to visit Orlando?
Two kinds of trip say yes. Families tied to the school calendar get 73.8°F afternoons and no tropical system to watch. Anyone who wants to walk and paddle as much as queue gets air cool enough for a full day on Wekiwa’s 13.7 miles and water warm enough at the end of it. The month says no to a traveler counting dollars after the 20th, and to anyone hoping to sit outside after dinner: 52.9°F is a jacket, and the sun has been down since 5:32.
When the answer is no, look at November first. Days at 78.3°F, nights at 58.2°F, 1.79 inches of rain over 3.0 wet days, and the school holidays not yet started. Its caveat is on the calendar rather than the thermometer, since the hurricane season runs to November 30. January is the other escape: quieter once the first week clears, colder by 2.0°F in the day and 3.4°F at night, wetter by a third of a day.
What December holds that November cannot is a hurricane season closed for all 31 days. What it holds that January cannot is 2.0°F more by day, 3.4°F more at night and 0.3 fewer rain days, with the manatees already in the spring runs.
The last word
The Orlando decision in December is which half of the month you book, not what you pack: the first ten days and the last ten deliver identical 73.8°F weather to very different crowds. Settle that, then settle the car, because Wekiwa and Blue Spring are where this month pays out. If the car is the sticking point, Brightline runs Miami to Orlando, about 235 miles in roughly three and a half hours, with departures around every two hours. Fares move by date and class, so price the day you want with the operator.
Sources & data for this guide
- December normals, rain days and freeze nights · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012815 (Orlando International Airport) · checked Sep 13, 2026
- November and January normals used in the comparison table · same NOAA NCEI series and station · checked Sep 13, 2026
- Sunrise 7:09 a.m., sunset 5:32 p.m. and 10 h 23 min of daylight on Dec 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted from UTC to America/New_York · checked Sep 13, 2026
- Hurricane season dates and September 10 peak · NOAA National Hurricane Center · checked Sep 13, 2026
- Eastern time boundary at the Apalachicola River · 49 CFR 71.5(f) · checked Sep 13, 2026
- 6.0% Orange County transient rental tax and 6% state sales tax · Florida Department of Revenue, form DR-15TDT · checked Sep 13, 2026
- LYNX fares, free transfer and the All-Day Pass instruction · LYNX official Fares & Passes page · checked Sep 13, 2026
- SunRail stations and the absence of a printed fare · sunrail.com Schedules and Fares & Passes · checked Sep 13, 2026
- MCO 27,859,783 and SFB 1.4 million boardings · Federal Aviation Administration, CY2024 · checked Sep 13, 2026
- Brightline Miami to Orlando, about 235 miles and roughly 3 h 30 · gobrightline.com · checked Sep 13, 2026 · fares deliberately not fixed here
- Parking spaces, boardwalk lengths, trail mileage at Wekiwa, Blue Spring and Silver Springs · Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Recreational Facilities Inventory, 2024 annual report · checked Sep 13, 2026
- Water temperatures 75.6°F (Wekiwa), 75.0°F (Rock Springs), 74.3°F and 168 cfs (Blue Spring) · U.S. Geological Survey NWIS, instantaneous readings, stations 02234600, 02234610 and 02235500 · read Sep 11, 2026
- Why manatees gather at springs in winter · Southwest Florida Water Management District, The Hydrology and Water Quality of Select Springs, May 2001 revised March 2011 · checked Sep 13, 2026
- Editorial reserves: floridastateparks.org returned 403 to our reads, so no park hour and no entrance fee is given · no per-spring manatee count was verified · flysfb.com blocks our connections, so no SFB mileage or drive time is given · no theme-park ticket price is published here, by choice