The snow range from above Nainital on 26 December 2017. Clear December mornings give this view more often than they give snow. Photo © आशीष भटनागर, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Three quiet, frosty weeks and one very full one. What the temperature really is, how often snow comes in December, and how the Christmas to New Year rush works.
The short answer: December in Nainital means days of about 14 °C and nights of 3 to 4 °C, by IMD’s 1991 to 2020 normals for nearby Mukteshwar, with frost on the upper roads by the end of the month. Snow is possible but not likely: in the seven Decembers from 2019 to 2025 it fell near Nainital in three, and in two of those it settled on the ridges rather than in town. The first three weeks are quiet and good value. Christmas to New Year is the busiest week of the winter, when the police run a special traffic plan with parking outside town and shuttles in. In 2026 both Christmas and New Year’s Day fall on a Friday, so expect two full long weekends.
By Meghna Bora, Contributor, Nainital. About the author ↓
Most of this page holds for any December. These are the dates and rules for this year, as we checked them.
December 2026, checked 7 October 2026
Nainital has no current IMD normals of its own, so, as in our Nainital in November guide, we use Mukteshwar, the IMD observatory at 2,286 m in the same hills, about 200 m above Nainital town. Treat its nights as a touch colder than the lakeside.
| Month | Average night | Average day | Rain | Rainy days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November | 6.1 °C | 17.2 °C | 7.9 mm | 0.7 |
| December | 3.6 °C | 14.4 °C | 17.7 mm | 1.1 |
| January | 1.7 °C | 12.1 °C | 45.6 mm | 3.0 |
An older IMD table for Nainital itself, covering 1961 to 1979, gives December an average of 12.8 °C by day and 2.9 °C at night, 23.9 mm of rain over 1.4 rainy days, and a record December low of minus 4.4 °C. So the averages stay above freezing, but frost on a clear morning is ordinary by the second half of the month.
The number that matters most for snow is the rain column. December averages about one rainy day, and snow comes with those western disturbances. That is why December snow is a matter of luck, while January and February, with three to four rainy days, are better bets. Which other places in the state caught snow in each of the last three winters is set out in our guide to snowfall in Uttarakhand.
1 to about 20 December is the quiet stretch. Clear days, cold nights, hotels at their winter weekday rates and the lake without the crowds. If what you want is the view of the snow range and a cheap room, this is the time, and it is often clearer than late December because the haze of the festival traffic has not built up.
Christmas week is when the town fills. In 2025, with Christmas on a Thursday, Amar Ujala reported most hotels and homestays full on Saturday 27 December. In 2026 Christmas is a Friday, so the rush will land on 25 to 27 December.
New Year is the peak. For 31 December 2025 and 1 January 2026, which fell on a Wednesday and Thursday, the hotel association’s president Digvijay Singh Bisht told Amar Ujala that 70 per cent of rooms were booked, and traders expected the bigger rush from 2 January. This year New Year’s Day is a Friday, so 31 December to 3 January will be one long, full weekend.
This is the question most December visitors are really asking, so here is every December from 2019 to 2025, as the newspapers reported it. Where two reports disagree, both are given.
| December | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Snow on 13 December, the season’s first, in Nainital and Mussoorie and around both towns (The Tribune, 14 December 2019). |
| 2020 | No December snow. The season’s first came on 4 and 5 February 2021: heavy at Dhanachuli and Kilbury, hail and light snow in town (Amar Ujala). |
| 2021 | Light snow on the evening of 26 December at Himalaya Darshan, Pangot and Kilbury, with only brief flakes in town; frost made the high roads slippery next morning (Amar Ujala, 28 December 2021). Mukteshwar had its first snow on 28 December. |
| 2022 | No snow. Uttarakhand’s December rainfall was 99 per cent below normal (ETV Bharat, 14 January 2026). |
| 2023 | No snow. December rainfall was 75 per cent below normal across the state (Down To Earth, 17 January 2024). The first snow came on 1 February 2024. |
| 2024 | Light snow on 9 December at Paharpani, Dhanachuli, Chorlekh and Managher. For the town, reports differ: Amrit Vichar had snow at Himalaya Darshan and Naina Peak with only flakes in town; Haldwani Live reported snow on Mall Road. More snow on the higher parts of the district on 28 December (All India Radio). |
| 2025 | No snow. ETV Bharat called it the driest December of the decade, with no rain at all in the month. The first snow came on 23 January 2026. |
Read it this way. Three Decembers in seven had snow near Nainital, and it came in the second or the last week of the month. In two of the three, the snow that settled was on the ridges, not on the lake shore. If you book for December, book for the cold and the views and treat snow as a bonus. If you want the best odds, the places that catch it first are the high points within a short drive: Naina Peak, Kilbury, Pangot, Himalaya Darshan and Snow View. Our guide to Uttarakhand in winter sets out where snow fell in each of the last three winters across Kumaon and Garhwal, by altitude. For every winter month, the best spots and how to time a trip around it, see our guide to Nainital snowfall.
Every year Nainital Police issue a special plan for Christmas and New Year, and every year it follows the same logic: fill the town’s own car parks, then stop cars outside town and run shuttles in.
The 2025-26 plan, reported by The India Daily on 23 December 2025, ran on 24 and 25 December and on 31 December and 1 January, from 6 AM to 9 PM. Two-wheelers from outside and heavy vehicles were kept out of Nainital, Bhimtal, Bhowali and Kainchi Dham. Once the town’s parking was half full, cars coming up from Haldwani were held in temporary lots; when those filled, traffic was sent to the GIC ground at Kaladhungi, HMT Ranibagh and the ISBT at Gaulapar. Shuttles ran from Rusi and Narayan Nagar, Vikas Bhawan in Bhimtal, the Sanatorium at Bhowali and HMT Kathgodam, and traffic coming down from the hills was sent one way through Kwarab, Mukteshwar and Khutani.
On the day it worked much as planned. Amar Ujala reported on 1 January 2026 that the town’s lots filled by the afternoon and cars were sent to Rusi Bypass and Narayan Nagar, with more than 500 police on duty. The year before, the 2024-25 plan used the Metropole, Ashok and DSA lots first, about 900 to 1,000 cars between them, then Sukhatal and the KMVN lots, then Rusi Bypass and Narayan Nagar, with residents and guests holding a hotel booking let through (Khabribox, 24 December 2024).
Two things follow for anyone visiting in that week. First, if your hotel has its own parking, ask for it in writing; guests with a booking are the ones the police let into town. Second, arrive early in the day. On ordinary weekends the police now also hold uphill traffic from Haldwani between 4 PM and 10 PM, and the Christmas plans are stricter than that, not looser.
Book before you drive up. On 6 October 2026, after weekend crowds of more than 50,000 a day at Kainchi Dham, Kumaon Commissioner Deepak Rawat asked visitors to book rooms in advance and said bookings may be checked at busy times. Some reports said peak-period entry to Nainital could be limited to people with bookings. No such order had been issued by 9 October 2026, but Christmas and New Year are the dates it would be aimed at. The same meeting ordered inspections of hotel and shop prices, with licences at risk for overcharging, on top of the rate lists Nainital hotels have had to display since December 2025.
The gap between a sunny noon and a December night is more than ten degrees, so dress in layers rather than in one big coat.
Ask your hotel whether rooms have heaters, and whether they cost extra. Many older buildings on the lake are cold inside after dark.
Nothing in Nainital closes for the season in December. A few things are worth knowing:
By the lake, around Mallital and the Mall, you are close to everything and pay for it, most of all in the last week. Our Nainital rate guide puts the 24 December to 2 January window at about Rs 3,200 to Rs 6,000 or more a night for a couple room in the Mall Road tier, with many places selling two-night minimums and prepaid bookings only. Early December is far cheaper, close to the November and January weekday levels of about Rs 1,200 to Rs 2,600. In December 2025 the district ordered hotels to display their room rates on the premises and online, after finding more than half had no complete tariff (Amar Ujala, 16 December 2025), so ask to see it.
Up on the ridges, towards Snow View, Ayarpatta or the Kilbury road, it is quieter and colder and the views are better, but you depend on a car or taxi and the roads are the first to frost.
In Haldwani, 38 km down the hill, rooms do not spike the same way, and in the first three weeks of December a day trip up is easy. Over Christmas and New Year, though, a plains base means driving into the police plan every day, so it suits people who are happy to leave very early or take the shuttle. We explain when the plains make sense in staying in Haldwani for a Nainital trip, and you can compare every stay in town in our directory of hotels in Haldwani.
Fog, not snow, is December’s travel risk, and it is down on the plains. IMD’s normals for Pantnagar, the observatory nearest Haldwani, count about ten fog days in December, and the overnight trains to Kathgodam lose hours on bad mornings. Each winter the railways also cancel or thin out some services. Last winter, as Amar Ujala reported on 20 November 2025, the Sampark Kranti ran on fewer days from 2 December and the Jammu Tawi Garib Rath and the Kanpur train were cancelled; the full list is in our Uttarakhand in winter guide. This winter’s changes had not been announced when we checked.
So book a train that runs daily if you can, leave a day’s slack before anything you cannot miss, and if you land late, sleep near the station rather than tackling the hill road at night. Our guide to hotels near Kathgodam railway station lists the closest beds, and Haldwani to Nainital has the two routes up, 38 km via Kaladhungi or 41 km via Bhowali, with cab and bus fares.
For most of December the road from Haldwani is dry and clear. What changes is the morning. After a cold clear night, frost sits on the shaded bends of the upper roads, towards Kilbury, Pangot and Snow View, and after any snowfall those roads ice over; in 2021 Amar Ujala reported the high roads slippery from frost the morning after the 26 December snow. Start after the sun is up, come down before dark, and if you have never driven on a frosty hill road, take a local driver. Our Haldwani cab guide has fares and operators.
In some years, and usually late in the month. In the seven Decembers from 2019 to 2025, snow fell near Nainital in three: 13 December 2019, 26 December 2021 and 9 December 2024. In 2021 and 2024 it settled on the ridges, Kilbury, Pangot and Himalaya Darshan, with only brief flakes in town. The other four Decembers were dry; December 2025 had no rain at all.
Cold at night and mild in the sun. IMD normals for Mukteshwar, about 200 m above Nainital town, give 14.4 °C by day and 3.6 °C at night in December (1991 to 2020). An older IMD table for Nainital itself gives 12.8 °C and 2.9 °C, with a December record low of minus 4.4 °C, so frosty mornings are normal by the end of the month.
Not for the first three weeks. From Christmas to New Year it is the busiest week of the winter: in 2025 hotels reported 70 per cent of rooms booked for 31 December and 1 January, and parking filled by the afternoon. In 2026 Christmas and New Year both fall on a Friday, which makes two long weekends, so expect it fuller than last year.
Layers you can add after sunset: a thermal top and leggings, a fleece or thick sweater, and a down or padded jacket for the evenings, with a woollen cap, gloves and warm socks. Shoes with grip matter more than a heavy coat, because frost makes the shaded paths and the upper roads slippery in the early morning.
Yes, on most days, if you time it. The road is clear of snow for most of December, but frost and the occasional snowfall make the upper roads, towards Kilbury, Pangot and Snow View, slippery in the early morning. Drive after the sun is up, come down before dark, and on the Christmas and New Year days expect police traffic plans with parking outside town and shuttles in.