December 6th through the 19th marks the best annual meteor shower, peaking with up to 120 many-colored meteors per hour around December 13th or 14th. Lie on your back and look to the east during the darkest moment of the night for the best view.
In 2011 the moon will be pretty bright during the peak of the meteor shower, so you might also try going out in the early evening (just after dark) on or around the 17th before the moon rises.
The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, respectively, in the sense that the length of time elapsed between sunrise and sunset on this day is a minimum for the year. Of course, daylight saving time means that the first Sunday in April has 23 hours and the last Sunday in October has 25 hours, but these human meddlings with the calendar and do not correspond to the actual number of daylight hours.
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/WinterSolstice.html
One of the best showers in 2012. Peaking in the wee morning hours of Jan. 4, the Quadrantids have a maximum rate of about 100 per hour, varying between 60-200. For many locales, the waxing gibbous moon will set leaving about two hours of excellent meteor observing before dawn. Unlike the more famous Perseid and Geminid meteor showers, the Quadrantids only last a few hours — it’s the morning of Jan. 4, or nothing.