Is it realistic that the U.S. presidential inauguration is in December instead of January?

What the title says

Example:
* Election presidential on Noviembre 1850
* Inauguration presidential on Diciembre 1850
 
Theoretically possible if Millard Fillmore dies before or shortly after Taylor.

Senator William R King succeeds and there is an election in Nov. Per the 1792 Act, the Pres- and VP-elect should take office on March 4, but Congress could move the date forward if for some reason it wanted to. [1]

Alternatively, if the POTUS-elect was a senator, he could have been chosen as Pres Pro-Tem, and King could then have stood down in his favour.

[1] Iirc such a change would later be proposed by Speaker Champ Clark in the early 1900s, but offhand I don't know of any such suggestion in the 19C. .
 
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Interesting question and thank you. It is hard for us to comprehend today how difficult land travel, (and ocean voyages!) was back then. Didn't Thomas Jefferson late in life charge ONE DOLLAR per mile for travel to make a speech? Dunno fur sures.
 
The easiest time would be with the passage of the 20th amendment which moved the start of the presidency from March to January. Could easily be changed to december i would imagine.
 
The difficulty with a December inauguration is that the incoming US Senate would have to be installed also since they would have to approve the new President's appointments. Mostly such hearings would be rushed or more likely postponed due to the holidays.
 
The difficulty with a December inauguration is that the incoming US Senate would have to be installed also since they would have to approve the new President's appointments. Mostly such hearings would be rushed or more likely postponed due to the holidays.

Not a problem. The POTUS could make recess appointments, and confirmation could wait until the Senate's next regular session.

This actually happened in 1915. Bryan resigned in June as Sec of State, and Lansing was appointed to succeed him. But Congress was in recess, so Lansing wasn't confirmed until December. There may have been other instances but that's just one that I happen to know about.
 
would 'the first Monday in December' work? It would give about 3 weeks to get everyone installed and confirmed before the holidays. Kind of a rush, and you'd have everyone going on Christmas/New Years' break just when you got finished, but it would be feasible..
 
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