What day is Christmas — every year to 2045

Christmas Day 2026 falls on a Friday, and 2027 on a Saturday. The table runs twenty years ahead, with New Year's Day beside it, because the two together decide what the end of December actually looks like.

Christmas and New Year, 2026 to 2045

The one-day shift, and the leap-year jump

A common year is 52 weeks and one day long, so every fixed date moves one weekday later the next year: a Thursday Christmas is followed by a Friday one. A leap year has 52 weeks and two days, and because 29 February comes before December, the Christmas after a leap day jumps two weekdays instead of one. That is the whole rule, and it is why the pattern in the table looks regular until it suddenly skips.

Over 28 years the whole cycle repeats exactly — the same dates, the same weekdays, the same leap years — which is why a calendar from 1998 works perfectly in 2026.

When Christmas lands at a weekend

In the next twenty years Christmas Day falls at a weekend in 2027, 2032, 2033, 2038, 2039 and 2044. Countries that shift public holidays off weekends — the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand among them — give a substitute day, usually the following Monday, and often a second one for Boxing Day. The United States does not move Christmas: a Saturday Christmas is observed on the Friday for federal employees.

Print the year and see it

Every year in the table can be printed as a calendar with the holidays of your country marked, in whichever language you want the month names. December is the month people pin to the fridge, so it is also worth having on its own sheet.

• December 2026 calendar
• 2027 calendar
• When is Friday the 13th?
• Days until a date