How many days off do you get for Christmas?

Posted by vladgrinch

43 Comments

  1. miko_top_bloke on

    Perhaps the USA is a land of freedom but surely it’s the exact opposite when it comes to labour law and paid time off

  2. Relevant-Outcome3529 on

    In many companies, there are “company holidays,” which means that employees are forced to use their vacation days.

  3. What’s this including? The UK has 25th, 26th and 1st Jan (all moved to give public holidays on weekdays on years when they fall on normal off days).

  4. Russia just has a single big holiday blob from Dec. 31 til Jan.10-12 depending on the year, so difficult to say what part of this is specifically for Christmas

    And Dec. 24-25 obviously gets nothing

  5. Spain is wrong also, depending on what sector you get upto 6/7 days or more if you’re in education/similar

  6. Software engineer here. Generally speaking, during the two weeks including Christmas and New Years, nothing happens. Maybe one or two people on standby but it’s almost always very mellow for at least 10 business days.

  7. Portugal is only 1. Why is it that every fucking map in this sub is wrong?! Seriously, wtf.

  8. SomeSortOfSans on

    In Ukraine days off were cancelled after the russian invasion. Officially, we have none, unofficially – depends on how your workplace treats you lol

  9. Wanted to argue and say that South Africa only has one day off, but I renembered not everyone works on boxing day🙁.

  10. notthegoatseguy on

    What typically happens is some groceries and smaller stores might open for a few hours in the morning and early afternoon as people travel to wherever they need to be that day, then they close.

    The family gathering/meal is usually early to mid afternoon.

    Depending on your local area, some businesses may start opening later in the evening. Think something like your neighborhood bar or brewery, bowliney alley, or movie theater. Stuff more oriented to people living in the local area, everyone-knows-your-name kinda thing, or things situated to families and groups. Chain restaurants, shopping centers, major retailers, will generally stay closed for the whole day. Your local nightlife/bar district probably will be quite dead.

    Public transit, what limited there is in the US, does not generally shut down in the US, but often will run at a reduced schedule.

  11. This map is outdated in at least one country. Taiwan used to have December 25th as a holiday, but it was called Constitution Day and not Christmas. This was stopped after the public holiday reformed from 2001, but then they make it a holiday again starting 2025 ( this year ). So Taiwan is on the 1-day category.

    Incidentally Taiwan also used to get Halloween as a holiday too. I think we are more American than Americans…

  12. Canada is incorrect. It is just the 25th. Some provinces also give a provincial holiday on the 26th.

  13. This is wrong. The US has no ‘days off’. Federal workers have the day off, but private businesses can do as they wish. Most are closed, some are not. This doesn’t mean people work a lot – I’m off for 3 days and don’t even need to bother taking a vacation day – but there is no national ‘holiday’ other than for federal non-essential workers. 

  14. While it’s 2 in Germany, most employers give you either the 24. or the 31. or half of each free as well.

  15. Zero at my career job as we were essential and a 24 / 7 job. But we got double pay on Christmas and when I had to work it, which was often, my family would just have Christmas on a different day.

  16. IchLiebeKleber on

    In Austria it’s more complex than this: true that only the 25th and 26th of December are public holidays, but on the 24th (also 31st), there are many employees who also get the full day or half of it off. It depends mainly on the collective agreement that is valid for the industry you work in; at my current job I get both off, but I’ve also already had to work on those days (or take vacation days if I wanted them off).

    Retail stores, for example, closed at 13:00 today, so that gives us a guess that retail workers certainly get reduced time today.

  17. WasteStart7072 on

    In Belarus it’s 2 days, but they are weeks apart: the 25th of December for Catholic Christmas and the 7th of January for Orthodox Christmas. And retail is always open with employees receiving the double pay for a day. Some shops close slightly earlier, but for most it’s just a normal day.

  18. Huh, I get the impression from movies and TV shows that almost everyone in Western Europe and North America gets at least a week off for Christmas.

  19. Specialist-Row-46 on

    Taiwan can have a holiday for Christmas this year and the future. This day happens to be the anniversary of the implementation of the Constitution.

  20. Slovenia has one christmas day off (25.), 26. is an Independence and Unity Day, which isn’t connected to christmas.

  21. UK is correct. We have 2 bank holidays (Christmas Day on the 25th and Boxing Day on the 26th).

    Although, if these fall on the weekend they get substitute for a Monday, Tuesday or both accordingly.

    For example, in 2027, Christmas Day falls on a Saturday and Boxing Day on a Sunday. So substitute days will be on Monday and Tuesday. Meaning we will have 4 days Christmas.

  22. Russia is partially correct. We actually get 8 days for new year holidays
    From January 1st to January 8th and it happens that orthodox Christmas happens during that holidays week.

    So it’s true that Christmas itself gives only one day off, but for most people days before and one after are also free

  23. TheFrostSerpah on

    In Spain we have two main gift giving holidays (Christmas the 25th and “Los Reyes Magos” the 6th), both of which are days off. January 1st is also a holiday.