Do companies close over Christmas in Ireland? What small businesses actually do

We get asked this a fair bit, usually by owners who are secretly hoping the answer is "everyone closes" so they can justify doing it. It's a bit more mixed than that if we're honest. But if your customers go quiet over Christmas, you're in very good company if you shut the doors.

How many businesses close over Christmas?

Nobody counts this in Ireland - not the CSO, not the business groups, nobody we could find. So we'll be straight with you: the best numbers we have are from the UK, and they're from a commercial survey rather than official statistics. For what it's worth:

There's no reason to think Ireland's wildly different. Our honest guess is the pattern's much the same here - most office-based and business-to-business firms shut for the week between Christmas and New Year, and anything that deals with the public keeps going. And the business often closes while the owner doesn't. Plenty of us end up at the kitchen table answering emails on the 29th. Guilty.

How long do businesses in Ireland close for at Christmas?

The most common one is from Christmas Eve (often from lunchtime) to the first working day in January. This year that's closing on Thursday 24 December and opening back up on Monday 4 January.

The quirk in Ireland this year is St Stephen's Day. It's on Saturday 26 December and it doesn't move to the Monday, but staff are still owed a benefit for it - and a lot of employers give Monday 28 December off as that benefit. If you do, your closure costs a day less in annual leave:

All the dates and what staff are owed for St Stephen's Day are in Christmas bank holidays Ireland 2026.

Which businesses stay open over Christmas?

Anything customer-facing or round-the-clock stays open. Most office-based and business-to-business work closes. Very roughly:

• Shops, pubs, restaurants, hotels, pharmacies, care homes, the emergency trades (your plumbers, electricians and boiler people), delivery firms and anyone on an IT support contract will usually be open.
• Offices, agencies, accountants, solicitors, recruiters, building sites, factories and most non-emergency trades will usually be shut.
• Then there's the awkward middle - a small online shop, an IT firm with a few clients who might ring. They tend to run a skeleton crew or keep one person on call with the phone.

Should my business close over Christmas?

Close if your customers are closed. Stay open if they're not. For most of us it really is that simple. Have a look at last year's emails, calls or orders for 28 to 31 December - if it was a trickle, close. If it was a normal week, don't.

The best thing about closing never seems to make the pros and cons lists. It kills the Christmas leave argument dead. Nobody's fighting over the same days because everyone's got them. If you're staying open you'll need a fair way of deciding who gets Christmas off, and you'll want that sorted by November - we've written up how we do it in how to manage Christmas annual leave.

Do staff have to use annual leave if we close?

Yes, you can ask staff to use annual leave for a Christmas closure. In Ireland it's the employer who decides when annual leave is taken - you just have to take their family responsibilities and their chance to rest into account, and talk to them at least a month before the leave starts. October's perfect.

You don't have to take it out of their leave, mind. Some owners give the days between Christmas and New Year on top, as a thank you. Staff really do remember that one. It just costs more (see below). Whichever you go for, say it in October - we've got a Christmas closure email you can copy. We've gone into the detail, including what to do about people who've run out of leave, in can my employer make me take annual leave at Christmas?

What does closing for Christmas cost?

If the closed days come out of annual leave, closing doesn't cost you anything extra in wages - people were always going to take that leave at some point. The real cost is any trade you miss. If you give the days on top, that's a few days' pay per person. And remember you owe staff a benefit for St Stephen's Day either way, closed or not.

Quick example: 10 staff on €40,000 a year cost roughly €154 a day each. Gifting them 29, 30 and 31 December comes to about €4,600. Taking those days from annual leave instead costs nothing extra in wages.

Our take

If you can close, close. For most small office-based teams, shutting from Christmas Eve lunchtime to the first working day in January is the right call - it's fair, it's simple and people come back in January properly rested instead of half-dead. Give Monday the 28th as the St Stephen's Day day off and it only uses three and a half days of annual leave this year.

If you can't close, don't feel bad about it. Run a small crew, decide how many can be off, get the rules out in October and stick to them. What we'd avoid is the in-between - "we'll probably close, let's see" - because that's exactly when everyone makes their own assumptions. We've learnt that one the hard way.

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