Yes, if you're happy with it - but it's your decision, not their right. Agree it in advance, be clear it's working, not holiday (so it doesn't come off their allowance and they do need to be reachable), and keep a record of who's home on which day so you know who's actually covering the 29th.
Between Christmas and New Year a lot of offices are half empty, the phones are quiet and the trains are a pain. So it's no surprise people ask to work from home. For most small teams we think it's a perfectly sensible thing to say yes to. It just needs a bit more structure than "yeah, whatever works".
Can staff work from home instead of taking leave at Christmas?
If you agree to it, yes. And it's genuinely useful for both sides - you keep cover for the odd email or call that does come in, and they save a few days of holiday for later in the year.
The thing to be clear on is that working from home is working. It doesn't come off their holiday, so they need to be doing their normal hours, answering emails and picking up the phone. If someone actually wants a day off, it's holiday and it goes through as holiday. Mixing the two is where it goes wrong - "working from home" on the 30th that turns out to mean "at my mum's, checking my phone now and then".
If you're closing completely over Christmas, it's a different question - most people will just be on holiday. We've gone through the closing-or-not decision in do companies close over Christmas?
Do staff have a right to work from home over Christmas?
No. Unless their contract says they can work from home, it's down to you. Employees do have a right to ask for flexible working from their first day in the job - but that's a formal request for a permanent change to how they work, not a way of booking a few days at home over Christmas.
If someone does make a proper flexible working request, deal with it properly: you've got two months to decide and you need a real business reason to say no. For a few days at Christmas, an informal yes or no is all it needs.
How to keep it fair for the people who have to come in
This is the bit that causes the most resentment, in our experience. Some jobs can't be done from home - someone's got to open the post, run the warehouse, serve the customers. If they're coming in while everyone else is at home in their slippers, they notice.
- Use the same rule as holiday. First come, first served up to however many you can have working from home on each day.
- If some roles genuinely can't work from home, say so - and think about giving them something back, like an early finish or a day in lieu.
- Don't let it be the same people in the office every year. Rotate it if you can.
We've written more about deciding fairly in who gets Christmas off? - the same principles work for working from home.
Seeing who's in and who's at home
You need to know who's actually working on each day, and where. Otherwise you'll get to the 30th, need something done in the office and find out everyone's at home. Or worse, find out someone you thought was working from home was actually on a train to Scotland.
A shared calendar or a list does the job for a small team. What matters is that working from home goes on the same calendar as holiday, so you see everyone in one place.
In Book Time Off you can add your own leave types, so we added a "Working from home" one. It doesn't come off anyone's allowance - it's just recorded - and it shows on the wallchart right next to holiday, so you can see who's in the office, who's at home and who's off at a glance. It's not a timesheet or a remote-working tool, we should be clear. It just answers "who's where?" without a message thread.
→ Start free trialWhat to put in the Christmas email
A couple of lines is plenty:
- Whether working from home is OK between Christmas and New Year, and on which days.
- That it's working, not holiday - normal hours, on email and on the phone.
- How to book it (the same way as holiday is easiest) and by when.
- How many people need to be in the office each day, if any.
There's a full Christmas email ready to copy in our Christmas email to staff templates, and if you want a proper written policy for working from home all year round, see our flexible working policy template.
The legal bit, if you need it
You don't need this to get Christmas sorted, but here's what the rules actually say if anyone asks.
- There's no general right to work from home. It depends on the contract, or what you agree (ACAS).
- Employees can make a statutory request for flexible working from their first day, up to two a year, and you must decide within two months - including any appeal - unless you both agree to extend it (ACAS Code of Practice).
- Working from home is working, so it doesn't come out of statutory holiday (GOV.UK).
- Your health and safety duties still apply to people working at home, though for a few days over Christmas that's mostly common sense (HSE).
Sources
| ACAS | Flexible working · Requests, decisions and the day-one right. Checked October 2026. |
| GOV.UK | Acas Code of Practice on requests for flexible working · Two requests a year, two-month decision period. Checked October 2026. |
| GOV.UK | Holiday entitlement · Checked October 2026. |
| HSE | Home working · Employer health and safety responsibilities for home workers. Checked October 2026. |
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.