The week between Christmas and New Year,with a skeleton crew that still has a plan.
In 2026 the week between Christmas and New Year is short: Christmas Day is a Friday, so the in-between week runs from Monday December 28 to Thursday December 31, and New Year's Day is Friday January 1. Four weekdays, and most companies give New Year's Eve off or end it early.
Half the team wants those days off, customers still write in, and something will page someone on December 29. This is how I'd plan the week for a team that can't simply close: who works, how support and on-call are covered, and what the people who are in should actually do.
The plan on one page
A skeleton crew of one or two people per area you can't leave alone (support, payments, infrastructure), named by December 1. On-call shifts that don't land on anyone's own time off. A short list of quiet-week work. And everyone back on Monday January 4, 2027.
Step 1
Decide what can't be left alone
List the areas that need someone during the week: customer support, payments, infrastructure on-call, anything with a contract that promises a response time. Everything else can wait four working days.
For each area, write down who can handle it. If that list has one name, that's your risk for the week: when that person is away, nobody covers it. This is the bus factor, and the holidays are when it bites.
Step 2
Ask for plans early, and ask about the in-between week by name
Ask in early November, with a deadline of Friday November 6. Ask specifically about December 28 to 31, because people treat it as obviously off and forget to mention it. Ask about half days and travel days too: a flight on December 27 often means someone isn't really working on the 28th.
Remember the people outside the US. In the UK, Boxing Day falls on Saturday December 26 this year, so the bank holiday moves to Monday December 28. Kwanzaa runs from December 26 to January 1. Someone visiting family in another country may be on a very different schedule.
Step 3
Pick a skeleton crew, and rotate it from year to year
One or two people per area is enough. Prefer volunteers. Some people like the quiet week and would rather take time off in January when flights are cheap, so ask before you assign.
Keep a note of who covered this year and give them first pick next year. Pay it back too: a day off in January for each holiday day worked, or on-call pay if your company has it. People remember who got stuck with the week.
Step 4
Line up on-call with the vacations, not just the calendar
On-call rotations are usually set weeks in advance in a separate tool, and vacations get booked later. That's how someone ends up on call from December 28 while they're on a ski trip. Check every shift against that person's time off and public holidays before you publish the rotation.
Split the break into short shifts so nobody covers both Christmas and New Year's, and name a backup for each one. Write every swap into the schedule as soon as it's agreed.
Step 5
Give the people who are in good quiet-week work
Don't plan a release. The holiday code freeze is usually still on, and the people who'd fix a bad deploy are away. Instead, pick work that's useful and safe: cleaning up flaky tests, writing the runbook nobody had time for, closing old tickets, updating docs, or the small internal tool everyone has been asking for.
Keep meetings off the calendar. The best thing about the in-between week is that it's quiet.
Small things that help
Post who's covering what
One pinned message: support, payments, infrastructure, with a name and a backup for each day. Customers and colleagues stop guessing.
Set expectations with customers
If response times will be slower, say so on your status page or in your auto-reply before December 24.
Write handoff notes before you leave
Three lines from everyone going out: what worries them, where the runbook is, who else knows the system.
Treat New Year's Eve as a half day
Even if it's officially a working day, plan as if people are gone by noon on Thursday December 31.
Check the first Monday back
Monday January 4 is when the backlog lands. Make sure the people who know the busiest systems aren't still away.
Say thank you in public
Name the people who covered the week in the first team meeting of the year.
The plan holdsuntil one person changes a flight.
A pinned message and a rotation tool carry the week for a small team. They slip when plans change in December and nobody re-checks who's covering what. Here's the week on a Forgot board. It's live, so try moving someone.
Gaps show up by area
Tag each person with what they cover, and the board tells you the days nobody covering payments, support or infrastructure is in.
On-call meets vacations
On-call shifts sit on the same row as time off and public holidays, and a clash gets a warning before December 28, not on it.
Everyone's holidays, by country
Boxing Day moved to Monday in London, Christmas Eve in Poland: each person gets the public holidays of where they live.
- Each person shows what they cover (Support, Payments, Infra on-call)
- The summary names the days nobody covering an area is in
- On-call shifts over someone's own vacation get a warning
- Move a vacation and watch the gaps change
Plan the holidays with the whole team on one timeline.
In Forgot each person gets a row with their time off, on-call shifts and their own country's holidays. Tag what people cover and you'll see the days an area has nobody in.
- See who covers what, and when nobody does
- On-call that warns when it lands on time off
- Public holidays for each person's country
- Your team sends dates without signing up
Sign in with Google, no card. After the trial it's a one-time payment, not a subscription.
Questions
What are the dates between Christmas and New Year in 2026?
Christmas Day is Friday December 25, 2026 and New Year's Day is Friday January 1, 2027. The week in between runs Monday December 28 to Thursday December 31: four weekdays.
Do most people work between Christmas and New Year?
Many don't. A lot of US teams take the week off or run with a skeleton crew, and many companies give New Year's Eve off or close early. Teams with customers, payments or infrastructure usually keep one or two people per area working or on call.
What is a skeleton crew?
The smallest group of people who can keep things running: enough to answer customers and handle incidents, but not to ship new work. Over the holidays that's usually one or two people per area you can't leave alone.
How do you decide who works over the holidays?
Ask for volunteers first, then rotate from year to year so the same people don't get stuck. Give whoever covers first pick of dates next year and a day off in January for each holiday day worked.
How many PTO days do I need to take off between Christmas and New Year in 2026?
Four: Monday December 28 to Thursday December 31. With Christmas Day and New Year's Day as holidays and the weekends around them, that's ten days off in a row, from Friday December 25 to Sunday January 3.