Sort it in October. Send the Christmas plan round in the first week, ask for requests by 31 October, decide how many people can be off on any one day and then it's first come, first served up to that number. One short email covers the lot. You really don't need a policy document for this if you're a small team - we never have.
If we're honest, Christmas leave has never been a legal problem for us. It's a timing problem. Everybody wants the same handful of days between Christmas and New Year, nobody mentions it until about three weeks before and suddenly you're the one having slightly awkward chats by the kettle.
So this is what's worked for us running a small team, not what a big company's HR department would do to cover itself. There's a legal bit at the bottom if you want it, but you probably won't need it.
When should staff book Christmas holiday?
We ask for everything by the end of October and we tell people that's the deadline at the start of October. That gives us all of November to sort out any clashes while there's still time to actually do something about them - and it gives staff plenty of notice to sort family plans out too.
We've tried later. It doesn't work. By December half the requests are already "sorted" in people's heads (flights booked, the in-laws told) and you're not really deciding anything, you're just finding out. Earlier doesn't work brilliantly either to be fair - ask in the summer and you only hear from the two super-organised people.
Roughly, our year goes like this:
| When | What we do |
|---|---|
| First week of October | Decide if we're closing, running a skeleton crew or staying open. Send the Christmas email with the dates and the deadline. |
| 31 October | Deadline for Christmas holiday requests. |
| First week of November | Say yes or no to every Christmas request. Any clashes get sorted now, not later. |
| Mid November | Check who's still got loads of holiday left (our leave year ends in December) and give them a nudge. |
| Early December | A quick reminder - hours, who's in, payday, who to ring if something breaks. |
| January | Ask what went wrong. Write it down for next year, because you will forget. |
We've had the version where nobody thinks about leave until December. Then someone realises they've still got a pile of holiday to use before the year ends, asks for most of the second half of December and you're stuck - say no and they lose it, say yes and you're short. Completely avoidable if you look at who's got days left back in October or November. Not on 20 December, which is when we noticed.
How many staff can be off at Christmas?
As many as you can lose and still get the work done that actually comes in that week. So work out the minimum you need first and the number off sort of falls out of it. We literally write it down day by day, from about 21 December to 2 January.
Be honest with yourself on this one. A lot of us (us included, once) insist on full cover for a week where the phone barely rings. Others go the other way and leave one poor person on their own on the 29th, drowning. Have a quick look back at last year's emails or orders for that week - it'll tell you more than any rule of thumb.
A few things that have caught us out:
- Do it per team, not for the whole business. Two people off out of ten sounds fine until you realise they're both in accounts and nobody's doing the invoices.
- Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are normal working days unless you say otherwise. Either plan cover for them or say you're closing early - just don't leave it vague.
- This year the bank holidays do a lot of the work for you. Christmas Day's a Friday and the Boxing Day bank holiday moves to Monday 28 December, so there are only three normal working days between Christmas and New Year (29, 30 and 31 December).
In Book Time Off you set how many people can be off at once in each department. When a team's full for a date, nobody else in it can book that day - so it's first come, first served without you having to stand guard over it. You can still override it as an admin if there's a good reason. It won't decide who deserves Christmas off for you (sadly) but it does stop the double-booking before it happens.
→ Start free trialShould we close or stay open over Christmas?
If your customers disappear between Christmas and New Year, we'd close. It's simpler, it's fairer and everyone comes back actually rested. If they don't disappear, stay open with a small crew. Most small businesses close for at least a bit - in a Kaspersky survey of 500 UK small business owners reported in December 2025, more than four in five said they'd shut for at least a day and only 19% planned to stay fully open.
The thing nobody tells you about closing is what it does to leave planning. Nobody's fighting over the 29th because everyone's got the 29th. It's honestly the biggest perk. You're asking people to use a few days of their holiday on dates you've picked, though, so tell them early. We've gone through the pros and cons properly in do companies close over Christmas? and if you want a pound figure, try the Christmas shutdown cost calculator.
Who gets Christmas off?
We go with first come, first served, up to the number we can have off - and if two requests land on the same day, whoever worked last Christmas gets it. It's quick to explain, nobody can say it's personal and it rewards the people who plan ahead.
We've looked at the other ways of doing it. They all sound fairer than they turn out to be:
- Taking turns each year is lovely in theory, but somebody has to keep track of it and it goes to pieces the minute someone leaves or joins.
- A ballot feels fair but it's a lottery for anyone with actual plans, and we reckon it causes more moaning than it saves.
- Parents first sounds kind. It isn't fair on everyone else though, and it can land you in hot water for discrimination - so we'd steer well clear of making it the rule.
We've gone through all of these properly, including what to do about staff who don't celebrate Christmas, in who gets Christmas off? And if someone does end up working Christmas Day, here's what you have to pay them (spoiler: less than most people think).
We've had three people ask for the same days between Christmas and New Year within about a week of each other. We couldn't let all three go. The chat with the one who missed out was awkward, mostly because there wasn't a rule - it felt like we were picking favourites, even though we weren't. Once there was a rule everyone knew about up front, that conversation more or less stopped happening.
Can I make staff take holiday at Christmas?
Yes, you can. You're allowed to tell staff to take holiday on dates you choose - a Christmas closure is the obvious one - as long as you give them notice of at least twice the length of the holiday. So three days closed needs at least six days' notice. If you're telling people in October, nobody's going to be counting days.
The one to think about in advance is the person who's already used all their holiday by December. Decide what you'll do before it comes up (let them borrow from next year, unpaid if they're happy with that or just pay it) and then do the same for everyone. There's more on this in can I make staff take holiday at Christmas? and we've got a Christmas shutdown policy template if you'd rather have it written down properly.
If you're closing, Book Time Off lets you do a group booking - the same dates for the whole team in one go, and one click to cancel it if plans change. The UK bank holidays come straight from the GOV.UK feed and never come off anyone's allowance, so 28 December is already sorted. Everyone's days remaining update straight away, which saves a few "how many have I got left?" messages in January.
→ Book the Christmas closure · start free trialWhat to put in your Christmas email to staff
One short email with the dates, the deadline and the rules. That's genuinely all we've ever needed. We don't have a formal Christmas policy and we don't think most small teams need one - the big companies have them because they've got hundreds of people and a legal department to keep happy. Your team just wants to know if they're working on the 29th.
The test we use is: does it answer the questions people would otherwise come and ask us? Which normally means:
- Which days are we open and what are the hours?
- Are we closing - and which days come out of holiday?
- When do Christmas holiday requests need to be in?
- What happens if too many people want the same day?
- When's payday in December (and how long is it until January's)? More on that in Christmas payday.
- Can I work from home between Christmas and New Year? (See working from home over Christmas.)
- Who do I ring if something breaks while we're shut?
Here's roughly what ours looks like:
Hi all,
Here's the plan for Christmas so nobody's guessing. We're open as normal up to [Wednesday 23 December] and we'll close at [1pm] on Christmas Eve. Then we're shut until [Monday 4 January].
The days we're closed that aren't bank holidays ([29, 30 and 31 December]) come out of your holiday, so please keep [3] days back for them.
If you want any other time off in December, can you get it booked by 31 October? We can have [2] people off from each team on any one day and it's first come, first served. If it's a tie, whoever worked last Christmas gets first dibs.
December payday is [Friday 18 December], so January's going to feel like a long wait - just a heads up.
Any questions, give me a shout.
Swap the bits in blue for yours and send it. We've put this one and five more (closure notice, opening hours, deadline reminder, payday and back in January) in our Christmas email to staff templates, with a Word download. All the dates you'll need are in Christmas bank holidays 2026, including Scotland's extra day on Monday 4 January.
Christmas holiday mistakes we've made
Pretty much every Christmas leave headache we've had came from one of these. Learn from ours, it's cheaper.
- Taking requests any old way. A word in the kitchen, a text, a Post-it on the monitor. If there isn't one place requests go, some of them will go missing. Ours did.
- Approving them in the order we happened to notice them. That isn't first come, first served, it's first one we saw - and people do notice the difference.
- Not looking at holiday balances until December. By then anyone with a pile of days left has nowhere to put them. We've written up how to avoid it in use it or lose it holiday.
- Forgetting about Christmas Eve. It isn't a bank holiday. If you're closing early, say what time, or you'll get five different ideas of what "early" means.
- "We'll sort it nearer the time." We've said this. Nearer the time is when everyone's already made their plans.
And if you do end up having to say no to someone, there's a right and a wrong way to do it - see can I refuse a Christmas holiday request?
We've had a holiday request come in on a Post-it, get agreed in passing and then completely forgotten about. Nobody did anything wrong really - it just never got written down anywhere. We found out when two people turned out to be off on the same day. That was more or less the day we stopped taking requests anywhere other than one system.
With Book Time Off staff book from their phone or laptop and their approver gets an email - one click to approve or decline, no logging in. If a request gets left sitting there, the approver gets a reminder the next working day. Everyone can see what they've used and what they've got left, and the whole team's on one wallchart. Honestly, it's not clever. It just means nothing gets lost, which was the whole point for us.
→ Start free trialThe legal bit, if you need it
You don't need any of this to get Christmas sorted, but here's what the rules actually say in case someone asks.
- Nobody has a legal right to Christmas Day or any bank holiday off. Whether bank holidays are paid days off, or come out of the 5.6 weeks' statutory holiday, depends on the contract (GOV.UK, ACAS).
- You can tell staff when to take holiday, like for a Christmas closure. ACAS says give at least twice as many calendar days' notice as the holiday; GOV.UK says twice plus one day. Give twice plus a day and you're covered whichever way you read it (ACAS, GOV.UK).
- You can refuse a holiday request if you give notice at least as long as the holiday they asked for - so turning down five days needs at least five days' notice (ACAS).
- A contract can change those notice periods, and if it says something different, the contract wins (ACAS).
- If someone's ill during booked holiday and reports it, they can take those days as sick leave and keep the holiday for later (ACAS).
- Be careful with rules that favour one group, like parents getting first pick. A rule that puts people with a protected characteristic at a disadvantage can be indirect discrimination unless you can justify it (ACAS).
Sources
| GOV.UK | Holiday entitlement · 5.6 weeks' statutory holiday and how bank holidays fit in. Checked October 2026. |
| GOV.UK | Holiday entitlement: booking time off · Notice rules for taking and refusing holiday. Checked October 2026. |
| GOV.UK | UK bank holidays · Christmas 2026 dates, including the Boxing Day substitute on Monday 28 December. Checked October 2026. |
| ACAS | Asking for and taking holiday · Employer and worker notice periods, refusing and cancelling holiday. Checked October 2026. |
| ACAS | Bank holidays and Christmas · No automatic right to bank holidays off; the contract decides. Checked October 2026. |
| ACAS | Sick pay and holiday pay · Sickness during booked holiday. Checked October 2026. |
| Kaspersky via TechRound | Kaspersky survey of 500 UK small business owners · Reported 5 December 2025. A commercial survey, not official statistics. |
FAQs
This is practical, general information for UK employers. If you've got a dispute brewing or something unusual in a contract, talk to ACAS (it's free) or an employment solicitor.