On-call over the holidays,without the same person giving up Christmas again.
Production doesn't take the holidays off, so someone is on call on Christmas Day. The question is who, for how long, and whether they actually can. In 2026 Thanksgiving is Thursday November 26, Christmas Day is Friday December 25 and New Year's Day is Friday January 1, which puts the two big holidays exactly a week apart.
Here's how I'd plan a holiday on-call rotation for a team of four to eight engineers, including the part most teams skip: checking each shift against people's actual plans.
Step 1
Plan it early, from the vacations backwards
Collect December plans by early November, then build the rotation around them, not the other way round. A rotation published in October and a vacation booked in November is how someone ends up on call from a beach.
Ask about travel days too. A flight on December 23 means the person is not really reachable that day, even if they aren't officially off.
Step 2
Split the break into short shifts
A normal weekly rotation that hands over on Monday puts one person on call for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and the next person on both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. That's fine if they volunteered. If not, split the holiday weeks into shorter shifts, like three or four days, so nobody covers both big holidays.
For 2026, one option: December 21 to 23, December 24 to 27, December 28 to 30, December 31 to January 3. Four people, each with one holiday-ish stretch.
Step 3
Spread the big days fairly, and remember who covered last year
Keep a note of who covered Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's each year, and rotate. The person who took Christmas Day last year gets it off this year.
Volunteers first. Some people don't celebrate Christmas or would rather have time off in January, and they often prefer to cover December. Ask, and don't assume.
Pay it back: a day off in lieu for each holiday covered, holiday on-call pay if your company has it, or first pick of next year's dates. See how teams pay for on-call.
Step 4
Check every shift against time off and public holidays
This is where holiday rotations break. The rotation lives in your paging tool, vacations live in a spreadsheet or HR system, and nobody compares the two. Before publishing, look at each shift and ask: is this person off, traveling, or on a public holiday where they live?
Public holidays matter for teammates outside the US. Boxing Day moves to Monday December 28 in the UK this year. A teammate in India has no holiday on Christmas week but may have taken leave for Diwali in November.
Step 5
Write down swaps and backups
Swaps happen in direct messages and get lost. Every swap goes into the schedule the moment it's agreed. Each shift has a named backup, and the backup knows they're the backup.
Finally, make sure the person on call can actually fix things: access works, the runbook is current, and they know who to call for the systems they don't own.
Small things that save the holidays
Freeze changes
A holiday code freeze means fewer pages. Fewer pages means an easier shift.
Lower the noise
Turn off or downgrade alerts that aren't urgent. Nobody should be woken on Christmas for a disk at 70%.
Shorter shifts on the big days
A single day on Christmas or New Year's is easier to give up than a whole week.
Escalation path
Write down who the on-call person calls when it's beyond them, and warn that person they might get a call.
Handoff notes
Everyone going away writes three lines: what worries them, where the runbook is, who else knows the system.
Say thanks
Name the people who covered the holidays in the first team meeting of the year.
The rotation is rightuntil somebody's plans change.
Paging tools know who's on call. They don't know who's on a plane. This board puts the holiday rotation next to vacations and public holidays, and flags the shifts that clash. It's live, so try moving a shift.
Clashes are flagged
An on-call shift that lands on the person's own time off or public holiday gets an amber warning, with the reason on hover.
Holidays by country
Each person gets their own country's holidays, so Boxing Day in London and Diwali in Bangalore are on the right rows.
One place for swaps
Drag a shift to another person and everyone sees the new rotation next to their own plans.
- A weekly rotation from Nov 30 to Jan 17
- Shifts over someone's own vacation or holiday get a warning
- Each person has the holidays of where they live
- Drag a shift to someone else to fix a clash
Plan holiday on-call next to everyone's time off.
Forgot puts on-call shifts, vacations and public holidays on one timeline and warns you when a shift lands on someone's own time off.
- On-call that warns when it lands on time off
- Public holidays for each person's country
- Code freezes and release dates on the same timeline
- Your team sends dates without signing up
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Questions
How do you schedule on-call over Christmas and New Year's?
Collect vacation plans first, split the holiday weeks into short shifts so nobody covers both Christmas and New Year's, rotate who covers the big days from year to year, and check every shift against people's time off and public holidays before you publish.
Should on-call over the holidays be paid extra?
Many companies pay a holiday premium or give a day off in lieu for each holiday covered. It's the simplest way to make holiday on-call feel fair.
What are the US holidays to plan on-call around in late 2026?
Thanksgiving on Thursday November 26, Christmas Day on Friday December 25 and New Year's Day on Friday January 1, 2027. Many people also take Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and the day after Thanksgiving.
How short should holiday on-call shifts be?
Three or four days around the big holidays works well, or even a single day for Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Go back to your normal weekly rotation in January.