Are We Getting Shafted For Christmas and New Years Time-Off This Year?

With Christmas and New Years Day both falling on a Monday this year, it feels like we're not getting as much time-off days in a row. Let's break this down to see if it's true.

Most of us who don't work in a retail environment look forward to the end of December because of the time-off schedule between Christmas and New Year's Day. It's almost a game we play trying to figure out the easiest way to use remaining vacation time creatively around company time-off while factoring in the weekends around those days.

This year both holiday days fall on a Monday, so is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

Christmas - Many companies give you the week day off before Christmas, and this year it's a Friday. Even if Christmas was on a Tuesday you'd still have Monday off, so we're not losing out on a long weekend there, either way.

New Year's Day - It's also a national holiday and company paid time-off is given. Some companies will give a paid 1/2 day off on New Year's Eve if it falls on a weekday, but since New Year's Day is on a Monday this won't happen. Would it matter though? You still would have to go into work a 1/2 day, which wouldn't allow you to be sitting on a beach somewhere.

So obviously taking Tuesday (the 26th) through Friday (the 29th) off are the best days to take vacation to have as many days off as possible this year.

What is the worst day for Christmas to land on when it comes to having consecutive days off without using much vacation time? That would be Thursday since you have to still work on Friday and most of the whole next week.

Most of it is psychological, honestly. Never-the-less, we still find it exciting to put our final vacation time of the year together each year knowing this.