Boxing Day hours: the date trap to check this Christmas
Boxing Day's bank holiday moves to Monday 28 December this year. Here's a 10-minute festive hours check for pubs, bars and restaurants.
Boxing Day isn't a bank holiday this year. Not on the 26th, anyway.
Christmas Day 2026 falls on a Friday and Boxing Day on Saturday 26 December, so the bank holiday moves to Monday 28 December. In Scotland, the 2 January holiday also moves, to Monday 4 January 2027.
That means "Boxing Day hours" could mean two different days. Guests will check Google, your website and your booking page. If one of them shows normal Monday hours on the 28th, or says nothing about the 26th, you get no-shows, guests at a locked door and phone calls your team doesn't have time for.
A 10-minute festive hours check before December gets busy:
- Write down your hours for every date from 24 December to 4 January. List the 26th and 28th separately, and add 4 January for any Scottish sites.
- Set the same hours everywhere: your website, Google special hours, your booking system and your social profiles.
- Set special hours for every holiday on Google, even if you're opening as normal, so guests know they're accurate.
- Running more than one venue? Check each site rather than assuming they match.
- Put a reminder in for early January to switch everything back.
It's a small job now that saves a lot of awkward conversations later.
Source for dates: GOV.UK bank holidays
