Every December, the same thing happens: customers check a website, see the usual opening hours, drive to the shop and find it closed. They leave frustrated, sometimes with a bad review. Holiday hours are one of the most searched pieces of information for local businesses, and one of the most often forgotten. Here is how to publish them properly on WordPress.
Which dates to plan for
- Christmas Eve and Christmas Day: early closing on the 24th, closed on the 25th for most businesses.
- New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
- Public holidays during the rest of the year, which vary by country.
- Annual leave, often a week or two in summer or between Christmas and New Year.
- Extended hours: many shops open later or on Sundays in December. Customers need to know that too.
Where customers look
People check your hours in three places: Google (your Business Profile), your website and sometimes social media. They should all say the same thing. Update the special hours in your Google Business Profile, then on your site, ideally on the same day.
On your website, hours usually appear in the footer, on the contact page and sometimes on the home page. If you typed them by hand in three places, you have to change them three times and remember to change them back. That is where most mistakes come from.
The easier way: one schedule, displayed everywhere
A business hours plugin stores your schedule once and displays it wherever you need it. With OpenHours, you set your regular week, then add exceptions:
- Add each closure date (for example 25 December, 1 January) with a short label.
- Add special hours for days with a different schedule (24 December: 9:00 to 16:00).
- Add a date range for annual leave, with a message such as “Back on 6 January”.
The plugin then shows the right status automatically: “Open now”, “Closes soon” or “Closed today – Christmas”, and the exceptions disappear once the dates have passed. You can see how it behaves on the live business hours demo.
Announce it clearly
A status badge answers the question for today. For upcoming closures, also add a short message at the top of your site with an announcement bar: “Closed 24 December to 1 January – orders placed during this time ship on 2 January”. Schedule it to appear two weeks before and disappear after the holidays.
For online stores, this is also the place for shipping deadlines: “Order by 18 December for delivery before Christmas”. It reduces worried emails and encourages people to order in time.
Give customers another way to reach you
When you are closed, customers still have questions. A floating contact button lets them send a message you can answer later, and a contact form with a clear note (“We reply from 2 January”) sets the right expectation.
A quick holiday checklist
- List all closure and special-hour dates until the end of January.
- Update Google Business Profile special hours.
- Add the same exceptions to your website schedule.
- Schedule an announcement bar with closures or shipping deadlines.
- Set an auto-reply on your email and messaging apps.
- After the holidays, check that everything is back to normal.
For the rest of your local website, read how to add an open now badge in WordPress and the essential plugins for a local business website.
Frequently asked questions
Do holiday hours on my website affect Google?
Google mainly uses the special hours in your Business Profile, but consistent information on your site helps customers and avoids confusion.
Will I have to remove the holiday dates afterwards?
Not with a schedule plugin that handles exceptions: past dates are simply ignored and your regular hours apply again.
Can I show different hours for the shop and for deliveries?
Yes. Create one schedule per service and display each where it is relevant.