Earliest Sunset in Boston: December Solstice

The earliest sunset in Boston occurs on the winter solstice, December 21st (sometimes Dec 22), when the sun sets at approximately 4:13 PM EST.

Counterintuitively, the earliest sunset precedes the solstice by about a week (early Dec) due to the equation of time and Boston's latitude (42.36° N). But the solstice day has the shortest daylight (9 hrs 4 min), with sunrise ~7:13 AM and sunset ~4:13 PM.

By January 7, sunset shifts to ~4:22 PM — gaining 9 minutes of evening light while mornings continue darkening until early January. The "darkest evening" feels like early December; the "shortest day" is the solstice.