Is Christmas Eve a Federal Holiday in 2026? What Federal Workers and Markets Should Know

Status as of Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. We will update this page if the White House issues a 2026 order closing federal offices on Dec. 24.

Christmas Eve, Thursday, Dec. 24, 2026, is not a federal holiday. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) lists Christmas Day, Friday, Dec. 25, 2026, as the holiday, not the day before. So, under the standing rules, federal workers report as usual on Dec. 24 unless the president orders otherwise. As of Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, no such order for 2026 had been issued.

Why Christmas Eve is not on the list

There are 11 federal holidays set in law. For December, that is Christmas Day. The Office of Personnel Management publishes the official list each year, and Dec. 24 does not appear on it. A day becomes a permanent federal holiday only through an act of Congress, which is how Juneteenth National Independence Day was added in 2021. No law has made Christmas Eve a federal holiday.

What gives federal workers Dec. 24 off, in the years it happens, is a separate step: an executive order from the president closing executive departments and agencies for that one day.

The executive-order pattern

Presidents have repeatedly signed Christmas Eve closure orders, usually in the middle of December. The most recent was Executive Order 14371, “Providing for the Closing of Executive Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government on December 24, 2025, and December 26, 2025,” signed Dec. 18, 2025 and published in the Federal Register on Dec. 23, 2025. These orders close most offices but let agency heads keep theirs open for reasons of national security, defense or other public need.

Year	Executive order	Christmas Eve closure
2018	Executive Order 13854	Yes
2019	Executive Order 13900	Yes
2020	Executive Order 13965 (signed Dec. 11)	Yes
2021	No order in our sources	n/a
2022	No order in our sources	n/a
2023	No order in our sources	n/a
2024	Executive Order 14129	Yes
2025	Executive Order 14371 (signed Dec. 18)	Yes, Dec. 24 and Dec. 26

We list only orders we could confirm in the Federal Register or White House records. For 2021, 2022 and 2023 we found no Christmas Eve closure order in those sources; that does not by itself prove none existed, so we mark them as not in our sources rather than asserting there was none. Because the 2026 decision, if it comes, would likely arrive in mid-December, there is no way to know today whether federal workers will get Dec. 24, 2026 off.

Is the stock market open on Christmas Eve 2026?

Yes, with an early close. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) closes at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Dec. 24, 2026, and is closed all day on Friday, Dec. 25, according to its published 2026 calendar.

Christmas Day is a federal holiday, so banks and the Federal Reserve observe it; the Federal Reserve’s holiday schedule lists Christmas Day, not Christmas Eve. On Dec. 24 itself, store, bank and postal hours are set locally and change year to year, so check each one. Our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2026 store hours list tracks what chains have announced.

Key dates

Date	Day	What happens	Days from today
Dec. 24	Thursday	Christmas Eve (not a federal holiday)	-
Dec. 25	Friday	Christmas Day (federal holiday)	-
Dec. 31	Thursday	New Year’s Eve (not a federal holiday)	-

New Year’s Day, Friday, Jan. 1, 2027, is the next federal holiday after Christmas Day. For the full 2027 list, see our federal holidays 2027 guide.

Plan the week

Put Dec. 24 and Dec. 25 on a December 2026 printable calendar, and see the date in other years on when is Christmas Day or the full holidays calendar. For market closings through next year, see our 2027 stock market holidays list, and for store and bank hours, the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2026 store hours.