(UNITED STATES) President Donald J. Trump has issued an executive order excusing most federal executive branch employees from duty on Wednesday, December 24, 2025 (Christmas Eve) and Friday, December 26, 2025, setting up an extended Christmas break for much of the federal workforce and closing executive departments and agencies on those two days for pay and leave purposes.
The move, which comes on top of the statutory holiday on Thursday, December 25, 2025 (Christmas Day), effectively creates a five-day stretch away from work for many employees on standard schedules. Because Christmas Day is already a legal federal holiday under 5 U.S.C. 6103, federal employees who typically work Monday through Friday will, in practice, see the holiday run from Dec. 24 through Dec. 28, with the weekend days included.
The Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, laid out how the closures will work in a memorandum titled “Closing of Federal Government Departments and Agencies on Wednesday, December 24, 2025 and Friday, December 26, 2025,” labeled CPM 2025‑17. The memo’s central guidance underscores both the broad reach of the day off and its limits, stating:
“President Trump has issued an Executive Order excusing Federal employees from duty on Wednesday, December 24, 2025 and Friday, December 26, 2025, except those who, in the judgment of the head of the agency, cannot be excused for reasons of national security, defense, or other public need.”
That exception matters for federal services that do not pause simply because much of the government is closed. While the order directs executive departments and agencies to treat Christmas Eve and Dec. 26 as holidays for pay and leave purposes, it also leaves clear discretion to agency leadership to determine which employees cannot be excused. Under the OPM memo, agency heads may require certain offices or employees to work on Dec. 24 or Dec. 26 “due to national security, defense or other public need,” consistent with the executive order.
In practical terms, the order will not turn Christmas Eve or Dec. 26 into permanent federal holidays written into law. The source material describes it as a “one‑time executive order” for 2025, meaning the days are being treated as paid holidays this year without changing the list of statutory federal holidays in 5 U.S.C. 6103. For federal workers, the difference between a permanent holiday and an excused day can be technical, but it shapes what happens in future years and how agencies apply pay and leave rules.
If you work a nonstandard schedule or rely on federal services, confirm with your supervisor whether you’re excused on Dec 24 and Dec 26, and how holiday pay or leave will be recorded.
OPM’s memo also delves into those technical rules for employees who do not work a standard Monday-through-Friday schedule. Federal payroll and scheduling systems handle holidays differently depending on “in‑lieu‑of” days—substitute holidays that apply when an employee’s schedule does not line up with the date of a legal public holiday. According to the source material, the OPM guidance provides rules for “in‑lieu‑of” holidays for employees on alternative work schedules and for employees whose basic workweek includes Sunday, and it cites 5 U.S.C. 6103(d) and 6131(b) as the statutory basis for parts of that framework.
Those details can determine when an employee is credited with holiday time, and how leave is recorded, in agencies where compressed schedules, alternative workweeks, and weekend shifts are common. The OPM memo is intended to ensure agencies apply the same basic approach across the executive branch, even when individual offices have very different staffing patterns and public-facing responsibilities.
The closures also reflect a familiar tension in federal holiday policy: balancing workplace morale and administrative simplicity against the operational demands of government functions that must run every day. The quoted OPM language explicitly points to “national security, defense, or other public need” as the basis for requiring some employees to work, leaving room for leaders to keep critical operations staffed even as most of the workforce is excused.
For many federal employees, however, the impact will be straightforward: two additional paid days off adjacent to Christmas Day, producing a longer break without the need to use annual leave. Because the executive order treats the closures as holidays for pay and leave purposes, the days are not merely informal “early release” periods; they are days when executive departments and agencies are closed, with the pay and leave consequences that go with that designation.
The timing is also notable. Christmas Eve falls on a Wednesday in 2025 and Dec. 26 falls on a Friday, framing Christmas Day on Thursday and creating the conditions for the five-day stretch described in the source material. For employees with standard workweeks, the additional excused days bracket the legal holiday and connect directly to the weekend.
These two days are a one-time executive-order holiday for 2025; agencies may designate essential staff for national security or public need, and ‘in-lieu-of’ rules apply for nonstandard workweeks.
For agencies, the key question will be implementation: how to close offices while maintaining essential services, and how to decide which staff fall under the exception for national security, defense, or other public need. The OPM memo makes clear that the judgment rests with “the head of the agency,” a phrase that signals the decision will be made at the top of each department or agency, rather than by OPM on a case-by-case basis.
OPM is the government’s central human resources agency, and its role here is procedural as much as practical—translating the executive order’s broad direction into rules that payroll systems and supervisors can apply. The memo’s formal label, CPM 2025‑17, reflects that function: it is guidance meant to standardize how agencies handle the closure days, including for employees on alternative schedules.
While the source material does not detail operational plans at specific agencies, it points to the most immediate effect: executive departments and agencies will close on Christmas Eve and Dec. 26, treating them as paid holidays for most employees in 2025, while carving out exceptions for roles that cannot pause. People seeking federal services around that period should expect reduced availability in many executive branch offices, particularly those that typically follow standard business days, with critical functions continuing where agency heads deem it necessary.
Don’t assume all offices close: some critical functions may remain open. Plan ahead for reduced federal service availability and verify which roles must staff critical operations on Dec 24 or Dec 26.
OPM’s memo provides the official administrative roadmap for how those two days will be handled across the federal executive branch, including the “in‑lieu‑of” provisions tied to 5 U.S.C. 6103(d) and 6131(b). The memo itself is summarized in the source material, and readers can find OPM’s official information and updates through the agency’s website at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
In the end, the executive order’s immediate promise is simple and widely felt: for most federal executive branch employees, Christmas Eve and December 26 will be treated as paid holidays in 2025, adding two days of closure to the existing legal holiday on December 25—and, for those on standard schedules, turning the Christmas period into a five‑day weekend stretching from Dec. 24 through Dec. 28.
President Trump issued an executive order designating December 24 and December 26, 2025, as excused holidays for federal executive branch employees. Combined with the statutory Christmas Day holiday and the following weekend, many workers will enjoy a continuous five-day break. While most staff are excused, agency heads may require essential personnel to work for national security or public need, following guidance from the Office of Personnel Management.
