The Cone Nebula forms part of the nebulosity surrounding the Christmas Tree Cluster.

The designation of NGC 2264 in the New General Catalogue refers to both objects and not the nebula alone.

It is in the northern part of Monoceros, just north of the midpoint of a line from Procyon to Betelgeuse.

The cone's shape comes from a dark absorption nebula consisting of cold molecular hydrogen and dust in front of a faint emission nebula containing hydrogen ionized by S Monocerotis, the brightest star of NGC 2264.

The nebula is part of a much larger star-forming complex—the Hubble Space Telescope was used to capture images of forming stars in 1997.