Trump Grants Two Federal Christmas Holidays
President Donald Trump has declared that federal offices will be closed on both Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas in 2025. The move came via an executive order and arrives two weeks after his public remark that Americans are saying “Merry Christmas” again. The decision follows the longest government shutdown in U.S. history and lands as an unmistakable signal about the holiday calendar for federal workers.
Giving employees both December 24 and December 26 off is uncommon, though not without precedent for individual days. Some presidents have occasionally granted Christmas Eve as a federal closing, and recent years have seen on-again, off-again practices depending on the administration. In 2019 and 2020, Trump himself declared Christmas Eve a holiday, while other leaders handled the dates differently.
Last year the sitting president declared the day before Christmas a federal holiday, but that was not the case in 2023. Prior to this season, former President Barack Obama was the most recent commander-in-chief to authorize a federal holiday on the day after Christmas. These shifts show how holiday schedules can change from one administration to the next.
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The executive order makes plain that agency leaders may keep essential offices open when required for “reasons of national security, defense, and other public need.” That carve-out means not every federal employee will get both days off, and some services will continue to operate by design. The order explicitly applies only to the 2025 calendar year.
From a practical standpoint, the announcement is an early holiday boost for many federal workers who will enjoy extra time at home. It also forces quick operational planning inside agencies tasked with maintaining critical functions while reducing staff on site. For affected employees, the immediate impact will be scheduling and possibly altered service windows for the public.
Politically, the move lands amid culture-focused messaging about holiday language and public life, and it reinforces a narrative favored by some constituencies. The timing—coming after a drawn-out funding fight and high-profile rhetoric—makes the declaration both symbolic and practical. It gives the appearance of prioritizing traditional holiday observance for federal staff.
Because this change comes from an executive order, it is inherently temporary and specific to this administration’s authority over federal operations. Future presidents can choose to extend, repeat, or reverse the practice, and Congress retains the ability to legislate permanent federal holidays. For now, this is a one-year adjustment with immediate consequences for 2025 federal schedules.
In short, federal workers will see extra holiday time in 2025, subject to exceptions for mission-critical roles. Agencies will decide which offices must stay open, and the public should expect some services to continue amid the closures. The decision is a clear, short-term reshaping of the federal holiday calendar with symbolic weight beyond the hours saved at the office.