Holiday Custody Schedule

How holidays fit around the regular schedule

A holiday schedule is a set of exceptions to the regular rotation. Most plans rank them: specific holidays such as Thanksgiving or a birthday come first, then school breaks, then the regular rotation. When two rules collide — Mother's Day falls in the other parent's weekend — the higher one wins.

Decide, too, what happens when the holiday is over. A common choice is that the regular rotation carries on underneath, as if it had never paused, so the next exchange is the one the rotation would have had anyway. Restarting the rotation after each holiday shifts every week that follows, which tends to cause more confusion than it solves.

Four ways to split a holiday

Alternate by year

One parent has the holiday in even-numbered years and the other in odd-numbered years. It is simple and fair over two years. The cost is that each parent misses the holiday every other year.

Split the day

Both parents get part of it — the morning with one, the afternoon and evening with the other — swapping each year. It works best when the homes are close, and it can mean a lot of driving on a day meant to be relaxed.

Same parent every year

Some days belong to one parent: Mother's Day and Father's Day, a parent's own birthday, a holiday only one household celebrates. Many plans give these to the same parent every year.

Divide the break

Longer breaks — winter break, spring break, summer — are often split in halves or blocks, alternating which part each parent gets.

Most plans mix them: alternate the big holidays, split Christmas, fix Mother's Day and Father's Day, and halve the breaks.

An even/odd-year example for 2026 to 2030

Here is one way to divide common US holidays into two groups that alternate by year. It is an example, not a recommendation: move holidays between the groups until it reflects what matters to your family. The dates are calculated for each year.

A and B are the two parents. Parent A has group 1 in even-numbered years and group 2 in odd-numbered years; parent B has the reverse. Christmas is split rather than alternated, swapping each year, and Mother's Day and Father's Day stay with the same parent every year. Monday holiday weekends usually run from Friday after school to Monday evening, or to Tuesday morning at school — say which.

School breaks

• Thanksgiving break. Schools close for anything from two days to the whole week. See Thanksgiving custody schedule.
• Winter break. Usually split in halves, with Christmas handled on its own. See Christmas and winter break.
• Spring break and summer. Alternated, rotated or divided into vacation weeks. See spring break and summer schedules.

Break dates differ by district, and sometimes between siblings at different schools. Define a break by the day school lets out and the day it restarts rather than by calendar dates, so the rule still works next year.

Holidays that move, and holidays only one of you celebrates

Religious and cultural holidays — Hanukkah, Diwali, Eid al-Fitr, Lunar New Year, Rosh Hashanah and many others — follow calendars that move against the usual one. Name the holiday and the rule ("the first evening of Hanukkah with parent B every year") rather than a date, and check the dates together each fall. Where you celebrate different holidays, giving each parent their own every year is often the simplest answer.

Travel over the holidays

• Agree how much notice a parent gives before a holiday trip, and what they share: where, a contact number and the return time.
• Put consent for out-of-state or international travel in writing, and agree who keeps the passports.
• Say whether travel time comes out of the holiday or is added to it.

What to write down

• The list of holidays, and which rule applies to each.
• Start and end times, and where each exchange happens.
• How even and odd years are counted — usually by the calendar year.
• What happens to the regular rotation afterwards.
• How, and by when, either parent can ask to swap a holiday.
• The deadline for choosing summer vacation weeks.

Putting it in the Co-parenting app

Public holidays are filled in for where you live, and you can import your child's actual school holidays — the dates the school has published — for almost every school across North America, the EU and Australia. See how to import a school calendar, then check the dates it finds against the school's own information.

The holiday arrangement goes into the schedule as a proposal: change the days directly, or apply a template between two dates — a different rotation for the summer, for example. Nothing changes until the other parent accepts it, and once the schedule is active, every change is a request the other parent has to accept. The FAQ has more on schedules and change requests.

Holiday guides

• Thanksgiving custody schedule: five common arrangements, with dates to 2030
• Christmas and winter break: splitting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and halving the break
• Spring break and summer: summer rotations, vacation weeks and notice deadlines
• Birthdays, Mother's Day and Father's Day: the days that do not fit a rotation
• What to include in a parenting plan: the full checklist

Frequently asked questions