Christmas Day
25 December 2026
Christmas Day is 25 December, the Christian feast of the birth of Jesus and, in the United States, a family holiday of gifts, a large meal and closed shops. It is a federal holiday and a legal holiday in every state. In 2026 it falls on a Friday, and the day before it is a state holiday in 11 states.
The date is late antique, not biblical; the New Testament gives no date. Sextus Julius Africanus named 25 December as the day of the birth in 221, and it later became the universally accepted date. Two explanations are offered: that the church took over a Roman festival of the winter solstice, or that 25 March, the traditional date of the conception, plus nine months gives 25 December.
Christmas began to be widely celebrated with a specific liturgy in the 9th century. In the United States, Congress made it a federal holiday in 1870, in the first group of holidays it granted to federal workers in the District of Columbia, alongside New Year’s Day, Independence Day and Thanksgiving; federal employees elsewhere followed in later laws. Timeanddate.com lists it as a state holiday in all 50 states in 2026.
The customs are younger than the feast. Fir branches were placed in houses by 1494, and fir trees decorated with apples were known in Strasbourg by 1605; the first candles on such trees are recorded in 1611. Christmas cards began in England in the 19th century, and the morning of 25 December, not Christmas Eve, is when North American families open presents.
Because 25 December is a fixed date, the observance moves when it lands on a weekend: federal employees get the preceding Friday when it falls on a Saturday, and the following Monday when it falls on a Sunday. In 2026 it falls on a Friday, so no substitute day is needed, and 28 December is an ordinary working Monday.
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Christmas”
- Congressional Research Service, “Federal Holidays: Evolution and Current Practices” (R41990)
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management, “Federal Holidays”
- Timeanddate.com, “Holidays and Observances in the United States in 2026”
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