It is a little known fact that, even though the daylight hours continue to decrease daily until the Winter Solstice around December 21st each year, the actual time the sun SETS is now getting later. Even before Christmas you may start to notice the sun setting just a little LATER each evening.
Here is the explanation, from an astronomical approach:
In Frankfort, Indiana, the earliest sunset is typically around December 7–8, and sunset times start getting later immediately after that, even though the shortest daylight overall is at the winter solstice around December 21.
When sunset starts getting later:
Because of the way Earth’s tilt and orbit interact with clock time, the earliest sunset occurs a couple of weeks before the winter solstice, then sunsets begin to get slightly later each day while sunrise continues to get later until early January. For Frankfort specifically, published tables for December show the earliest sunset on about the 7th or 8th, with times very gradually getting later after those dates.
Today, December 10 is after the earliest-sunset date, so today the trend has already reversed and the sun is indeed starting to set later than it did a few days before. In practice, the change is only by a minute or so at first, and may be hard to notice without checking a detailed almanac or time table. Now we can look forward to the day the average temperature in our area statistically starts to warm each day. In our area, will have to wait until about January 20th for that special day.