# Do you take time off in and around the Holiday Season? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 5, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512 "2006-09-05T14:56:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/1 "2006-09-05T14:56:14Z")
A coworker has just scheduled off for elective surgery from the week before Thanksgiving to the week after Christmas. She’s reception, so it means that I can’t have any time off while she’s gone because we’ll be short-staffed in the office. Generally, I take a few days off here and there during the lead up to the holidays, so I’m bummed about this development. It also means that I have three weeks of vacation to get in before Thanksgiving. Urk. But I’m sure it wouldn’t even impact some people, as they don’t plan on taking any time off during that period. How about you? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/2 "2006-09-05T14:59:45Z")
We have to choose between taking off the week between Xmas and New Year’s or the week between New Year’s and the Epiphany. We get a certain amount of total vacation days, but those that are “compulsory” (for example, if the company decides that everybody is going to take off the Monday before a national holiday) are discounted from the total. When we talk about “how many vacation days do you have left”, it includes only the non-compulsory ones. Those days in Xmas are counted as compulsory. You decide which week you take, but by Jove you’re going to take 'em. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/3 "2006-09-05T15:03:25Z")
Freakin’ Europeans. I always take off my birthday (New Year’s Eve), but other than that, no. Of course, I don’t have kids, and don’t really celebrate Christmas, so I’m not the best respondent. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/4 "2006-09-05T15:06:45Z")
I’m the most junior librarian in my department, so it’s not like I really get a choice. 🙂 Anyway, unless I had somewhere I was going, I don’t see why. What are you gonna do, go shopping? I get 20 days of annual leave a year; I’ve been saving since I got this job so I can go on a long trip that’s coming up. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/5 "2006-09-05T15:27:45Z")
Whatever they give me (Christmas Day & Eve, New Year’s Day & Eve) I take off. I even celebrate Christmas, though I’m atheist Hindu, but I don’t need any extra days off for it. It’s not fun to take time off anyway, as you can’t go anywhere or do anything, really. I tend to take my time off in early December. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/6 "2006-09-05T15:37:07Z")
If I have the time off coming to me, I take it around then. In the past, I had always burned all my time off well before the holidays. However, I’ve been with my company long enough that I’m at five (maybe six…I forget) weeks vacation time, plus personal and sick days, so I should have some time left this year. Of course, having a baby around causes me to use a lot more time than I used to, so we’ll have to see… ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/7 "2006-09-05T15:56:36Z")
In my office, it seems like maybe 1/2 the staff takes off the week between x-mas and NY. Folks have until the 1st pay period in the new year to use any “use-or-lose” leave - many folks get up to the max carryover and then take large chunks of use-or-lose in December. Mgmt is very lenient in allowing all requests if at all possible. I rarely take more than a day or 2 off hare and there at that time. My thinking is - why waste leave when my boss and most of the other bosses are going to be out of the office? 😉 It is always nice and quiet at work around that time… ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/8 "2006-09-05T16:12:02Z")
I usually don’t. My mother lives close enough that I can visit her on both holiday’s easily enough. ---
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/9 "2006-09-05T16:33:21Z")
Ergh. You better believe I take time off around then. We’re not even Christian, but unfortunately my relatives either are or celebrate Christmas anyway. My parents are divorced, and while they live somewhat close to each other (southwest of Philadelphia), they must be visited separately. They’re about two to 2.5 hours away, depending on traffic. An additional complication is that my husband is not currently speaking to my mother (for good reasons I’m not going to go into right now). My grandmother wants a visit if I can fit it in. She’s in Lancaster, about three hours away. If I plan well, I can combine a visit with her in with the visit with Dad. My husband’s mother and other family is a very close knit country family out in western New York (about six hours away). Fortunately they all live in the same small town, but it still takes a few days to make the rounds. Also, fortunately, we don’t speak to his father, so that takes him and the step-family off of the holiday visit list (near Washington DC last we heard). It’s amazingly difficult to coordinate all of this every year. The process begins as late as humanly possible, because we HATE it, but within a couple of weeks of Thanksgiving. And it takes us weeks of discussion to settle on a compromise that makes no one happy. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/10 "2006-09-05T17:30:49Z")
Since we moved 2000 miles from home, yes we both take time around the end of december. It’s the only time that we can be reasonably sure of seeing the most family in a few days time. ---
**Author:** ![VenusProbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e495f1/32.png) [@VenusProbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VenusProbe)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/11 "2006-09-05T17:31:08Z")
I have accrue vacation time faster than I can use it most of the time so I always add at least Friday to the “Monday” holidays, I take July 5th, my birthday, and the week between Christmas and New Years. Plus several days for Soccer and Dance stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/12 "2006-09-05T17:40:57Z")
I work everybody’s swing shift in the Summer when they go on vacation. In return they know I’m going to be with family (California or Alaska) in mid-December. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/13 "2006-09-05T22:15:04Z")
I take the public holidays (Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day). Otherwise I always wait until February to take any leave. By then the kids are back at school after the summer holidays so any travel/accommodation prices are cheaper. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/14 "2006-09-05T22:33:59Z")
My museum is only open on weekends beginning in November. We use the winter months to re-do exhibits, but we generally take off the last of November and almost all of December. We come in to open the museum for the weekends, but that’s about it until after New Year’s Day. We all have stuff we’d rather be doing during the holidays, and I’m really glad that our workplace allows it. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/15 "2006-09-05T22:42:02Z")
**Suburban Plankton** always takes the whole week of Thanksgiving off. That’s 4 days of PTO. We always go to Disneyland that week. He might take a random day in December for Christmas prep, but not always. We live within an hour of everyone one we want to see at Christmas so we don’t travel and don’t really need a lot of time off. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/16 "2006-09-06T00:20:10Z")
Generally speaking, my workplace isn’t open the last 2 weeks of December. For some reason, schools aren’t real big on giving standardized tests in December, so we run out of work until January. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/17 "2006-09-06T00:46:32Z")
I work retail, so taking time off during the holidays isn’t an option. I need to use up several more vacation days this month before the black-out period begins, and then I’ll use a few in January so that I don’t lose any…we can carry over 24 hours…last year I carried over 19! They just couldn’t figure out a way to give me time off. But right now both my coworkers have maxed out their PTO, so it’s all about me. Unfortunately, my boss already cancelled one of the vacation days she made me take, because she forgot to schedule anyone to close, and no one else was available but me… Since I have no money to go anywhere, and all my family is here, it’s just extra days off here and there. ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/18 "2006-09-06T01:54:17Z")
As a Jew, i avoid the holidays by going to Vegas. It’s the next best thing to spending them in an athiest country. 12/23 - 12/27 this year. Dopefest anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/19 "2006-09-06T02:09:12Z")
I always take off a week for Christmas. Christmas (and to a lesser extant Thanksgiving but that’s already a 4 day weekend at work) is _the_ big deal holiday in my family, plus there are several December birthdays (including mine). ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512/20 "2006-09-06T02:14:42Z")
I work in a hospital lab, and I’m the newest employee (and don’t even technically have a position, just availability). I’ll be working every single holiday. I’m aiming for the midnight-to-8am shift for Christmas day, though, so I can at least get Christmas dinner with my family. We’ll see. Thanksgiving and New Years, though, I’ll be working. Gotta pay my dues and such. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-take-time-off-in-and-around-the-holiday-season/371512.md?page=2)