Holiday hours for a practice: Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year notices to copy, and when to send them

Holiday weeks are when patients travel, run low on medication and try to book the day you are closed. A short notice in the right places, sent at the right times, saves the front desk the January backlog of missed calls and the patient who drove to a locked door.

The dates to plan for

The federal holidays at the end of this year are Thanksgiving on Thursday 26 November, Christmas on Friday 25 December and New Year's Day on Friday 1 January 2027. A practice chooses its own closures, so decide early whether you also close on Friday 27 November, or close early on Thursday 24 and Thursday 31 December, and put the same dates everywhere.

While you are deciding, set next year's too. The Office of Personnel Management lists the 2027 federal holidays, including Memorial Day on Monday 31 May, Independence Day observed on Monday 5 July, Labor Day on Monday 6 September, Thanksgiving on Thursday 25 November and Christmas observed on Friday 24 December.¹

When to tell patients

• About three weeks before: the dates on your website, your Google profile and your phone greeting's schedule, and one line added to every appointment reminder that falls near the closure, as in our guide to reminder texts.
• The week before: one text or email to patients with a visit, a follow-up or a refill due around the closure, with the refill cutoff.
• The last working day: the after-hours greeting goes on, and the website banner says who to call.

For Thanksgiving this year, three weeks before has passed, so do the first two steps together this week.

Google, the website and the phone

Google Business Profile has special hours for holidays, special events and other exceptional days, for a business that changes its hours or stays closed for up to 6 days in a row. Google suggests confirming your hours for official holidays even if they do not change, and special hours only show if the profile is set to "Open with main hours".² Set all three holidays at once, so none is forgotten in December.

On the website, a one-line banner with the dates and the after-hours number is enough. On the phone, record the holiday greeting now and schedule it, so it is not left to the last person out of the door.

Who covers while you are closed

Every notice should say where a patient goes when it cannot wait: the on-call clinician or answering service, the nearest urgent care, and 911 for an emergency. For refills, our recommendation is a cutoff two working days before you close, so requests can be checked and sent to the pharmacy in time.

For a therapy practice, the American Psychological Association's code asks psychologists to make reasonable efforts to plan for facilitating services when they are interrupted by factors such as the psychologist's unavailability.³ Our recommendation for every therapist is the same: name the colleague who covers, say how to reach them, and give the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which people can call, text or chat for free and in confidence.⁴ This is not legal or clinical advice.

Keeping the notice a notice

A closure notice carries no health details, so it can go by ordinary text or email, as in our guide to emailing patients. Keep it to hours and care. HIPAA's marketing rule is about communications that encourage someone to buy or use a product or service,⁵ and the FCC treats a patient's phone number, given to their provider, as consent to be contacted about matters closely related to why it was given.⁶ A holiday offer in the same text is a different kind of message under both, with its own rules.⁷

Messages you can copy

Replace the words in brackets. The texts are written to fit one standard text message of 160 characters.

Patients who cancel because of travel fill the gaps a waitlist can use, as in our waitlist guide, and the week back is a good time to repeat your no-show policy. For a vet clinic, the same weeks need the pet safety reminders in our holiday guide for vets.

What can run by itself

• The reminder line, added by the scheduler to every reminder for a visit within a week of the closure.
• The week-before message, sent only to patients with a visit, follow-up or refill near the closure.
• The phone greeting, switched on and off by schedule.
• The website banner, shown from three weeks before and taken down the day you reopen, as in our front desk automation guide.

What stays with your team

• The dates, and who covers on each one.
• Patients who need a call, not a text: anyone with an urgent result or a follow-up that cannot move.
• Rebooking the visits a closure moves.

More of what we write for practices is on the blog.

Questions practices ask