U.S. federal holiday
How Many Days Until Christmas 2026?
Today: · Eastern Time (America/New_York)
Calendar days until Christmas
62 days until Christmas
Christmas Day is on Friday, December 25, 2026.
Observed federal day off: Friday, December 25, 2026. The countdown targets the actual holiday date.
Live countdown to midnight on December 25, 2026
61 days, 19 hours, 39 minutes, 7 seconds remaining
Eastern Time (America/New_York). Countdown days are 24 hours; the calendar-day count above uses local dates.
- Calendar days (signed)
- 62
- Full weeks + days
- 8 weeks + 6 days
- Calendar months + days
- 2 months + 1 day
- Years, months, days
- 0 years, 2 months, 1 day
- Weekdays counted
- 45
- Weekend days counted
- 17
- U.S. business days
- 42
- Observed holiday dates skipped
- 3
What is Christmas?
Christmas Day, December 25, is the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus and the most widely observed holiday in the United States, by people of many faiths and none. It is a federal holiday, and most businesses close.
History of Christmas
Churches in Rome were celebrating the birth of Jesus on December 25 by the 300s. Customs such as the Christmas tree came to America largely with German immigrants, and the modern Santa Claus took shape in the 1800s through Clement Clarke Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and Thomas Nast's illustrations. Congress made Christmas a holiday for federal workers in the District of Columbia in 1870.
Christmas today
Families exchange gifts, decorate trees and homes, share a holiday meal and attend church services, many of them on Christmas Eve. Some Orthodox churches that follow the Julian calendar celebrate on January 7.
Date details
- Category
- U.S. federal holiday
- How the date is set
- Set by a yearly rule
- Country / region
- United States
- Actual event date
Event date facts
- Weekday
- Friday
- ISO week / year
- 52 / 2026
- Day of year
- 359
- Quarter
- 4
- Days left in year
- 6
- Leap year
- No
December 2026
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Target | ||||||
Event dates by year
| Rule year | Actual date | Observed federal closure | Certainty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Thursday, December 25, 2025 | Thu, Dec 25, 2025 | Set by a yearly rule |
| 2026 | Friday, December 25, 2026 | Fri, Dec 25, 2026 | Set by a yearly rule |
| 2027 | Saturday, December 25, 2027 | Fri, Dec 24, 2027 | Set by a yearly rule |
| 2028 | Monday, December 25, 2028 | Mon, Dec 25, 2028 | Set by a yearly rule |
| 2029 | Tuesday, December 25, 2029 | Tue, Dec 25, 2029 | Set by a yearly rule |
Quick answers
- What day of the week is December 25, 2026?
- December 25, 2026 is a Friday.
- Is Christmas a federal holiday?
- Yes. Christmas Day is one of the 11 annual U.S. federal holidays.
- What week of the year is December 25, 2026?
- December 25, 2026 is in ISO week 52 of 2026 and is day 359 of the year.
How the Christmas date is calculated
- Christmas Day is on December 25 every year (5 U.S.C. 6103). In 2026 that is a Friday.
- It falls on a weekday this time, so the federal day off is the holiday itself. In years when it lands on a Saturday the day off moves to Friday, and on a Sunday to Monday.
- The countdown counts calendar days from today to December 25, 2026. The start date is excluded and the end date is included. Dates use Eastern Time (America/New_York).
- The live countdown runs to midnight at the start of December 25, 2026 in Eastern Time (America/New_York). A countdown day is 24 hours, so a daylight-saving change can make it differ from the calendar-day count by an hour.
- Calculated at 5:20 AM on October 24, 2026.
- U.S. business days exclude Saturday, Sunday and observed nationwide federal closures; individual employer and state schedules are not included.