December 22 Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius or Capricorn?

December 22 is a cusp birthday: in 30 of the 87 years from 1940 to 2026 the Sun entered Capricorn during December 22 (US Eastern Time), so people born that day are Sagittarius before the change time and Capricorn after it; in 57 years the change came earlier and the whole day was Capricorn. Your sign depends on the year and time of birth — see the table. Pacific Time: change during the day in 20 years, whole day Capricorn in 67, whole day Sagittarius in 0.

December 22 at a glance

• Possible Sun signs: Sagittarius before the change, Capricorn after
• Elements: Sagittarius Fire, Capricorn Earth
• Modalities: Sagittarius Mutable, Capricorn Cardinal
• Rulers: Sagittarius Jupiter, Capricorn Saturn
• Data: NASA JPL Horizons, 1940–2030

Most years below show no change time, which means Capricorn already owned all of December 22 on that coast. Where a time does appear, it is the boundary for that coast and year: births before it carry a Sagittarius Sun, births at or after it a Capricorn one. An Eastern time beside an empty Pacific cell is no misprint: when the Sun crossed into Capricorn in those years, Los Angeles clocks had not yet turned over to December 22. Readers born on Central or Mountain clocks should skip both columns and go to the birth chart. Neighboring birthdays are listed day by day under December zodiac signs.

Not one year from 1940 to 2030 left December 22 entirely to Sagittarius in either zone, so Sagittarius is possible here only for a birth that came before a printed change time. Clock readings for 1942 and 1943 carry the War Time labels EWT and PWT, used while US clocks stood an hour ahead (February 9, 1942, to September 30, 1945).

If your December 22 is still undecided after the table, the birth chart is where you check your Sun sign with your birth time from the date, hour and city of birth; the tool is free, and you do not have to sign up. Lacking a recorded time, the chart is calculated for 12:00 noon and marked as such.

Instead of relying on a single noon position, the calculator checks for any sign changes across your entire local birth date. If the Sun, the Moon, or another planet changes sign during that local day, the result shows each possible sign for that day rather than guessing a single one.

Whichever side of the change you were born on, astrology is an interpretive tradition, not a scientifically validated method.

Sagittarius, the sign of any December 22 birth before the change, is where astrology's Northern Hemisphere autumn (of spring south of the equator) runs out, and Mutable is the modality the tradition assigns the sign for standing last in that season. Astrology reads Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, in terms of expansion and religion. Sagittarius zodiac sign gives the full reading.

Births at or after the change belong to Capricorn, whose start is set by the December solstice and which heads astrology's Northern Hemisphere winter (of summer south of the equator). For that first place astrology files Capricorn as Cardinal, a modality it pairs with action. For Saturn, Capricorn's ruler, astrology lists lofty goals, productiveness and balance among its themes. Read on at Capricorn zodiac sign.

FAQ

What makes December 22 a cusp date in a year when it was all Capricorn? Nothing in that year itself; the nickname comes from what can happen on the date: on December 22, Sagittarius can give way to Capricorn. When the switch came on December 21 by local clock, the 22nd belonged entirely to Capricorn. In a year with the change on the 22nd, the birth minute decides, and it can point to only one sign: Sagittarius before the change, Capricorn at it or later.

Is an afternoon birth on December 22 always Capricorn? Nearly: among Eastern and Pacific births from 1940 to 2026, the lone exception is 1943, when the Sun did not reach Capricorn until 13:29 EWT, so an Eastern birth between noon and that minute was Sagittarius. That reading is War Time, with clocks an hour ahead. Apart from 1943, the Eastern changes on December 22 all came before noon, from 00:04 EST (1945) to 11:43 EST (1947). Pacific changes on the date stayed between 00:15 PST (1962) and 10:29 PWT (1943), so a West Coast birth at 10:29 a.m. or later was Capricorn whatever the birth year from 1940 to 2026.

How this page was made

Each Capricorn ingress from 1940 to 2030 was located with NASA JPL Horizons Sun positions and put on New York and Los Angeles clocks with the IANA time zone database. Season positions, modalities, rulers and the solstice start rest on Wikipedia's "Zodiac," "Triplicity" and "Astrological sign," the disclaimer on "Astrology and science," and the Jupiter and Saturn themes on "Planets in astrology." The Astrolivo editorial team did the preparation and the fact-check, and every sign meaning is reported as a reading of the tradition.