To set holiday hours on Google, open your Business Profile, choose Edit profile, then Hours, and add the date under Special hours. Do it a week or two before each holiday. Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26 this year, Christmas is Friday, December 25, and New Year's Day is Friday, January 1, 2027.
That's the short version. The rest of this post covers the exact steps, the rules Google applies to special hours, and the small mistakes that send customers to a locked door.
Why it matters more than it seems
When someone searches for a business like yours near them, Google often shows your hours right in the results. Plenty of people never click through to your website. If Google says you're open and you're not, that customer drove over for nothing, and some of them will say so in a review.
Holiday hours are also one of the easiest wins in local SEO. Accurate hours are part of a complete profile, and a complete profile is what Google's map results reward. We covered the bigger picture in how to get into Google's map results.
The steps
Google's help page on how to set special hours lays out the process. On the web:
- Go to business.google.com and open your Business Profile.
- Select Edit profile, then Hours.
- Next to Special hours, select the edit icon.
- Pick the date. Google may suggest upcoming holidays for you to review. You can also choose Add a date and enter any day you like.
- Set the hours. If you're open, clear the Closed box and enter your opening and closing times. If you're closed all day, leave Closed checked.
- Select Save.
Need two sets of hours on one day, like open in the morning, closed for a few hours, then open again in the evening? Google's page says to use More and then Add hours for a second set on the same date.
The rules that trip people up
Google's help pages spell out a few limits. They're easy to miss.
Your regular hours have to be set first
Google says special hours "only display" when your business is set to Open with main hours. If your profile has no regular hours, add them before you add holiday hours.
Special hours are for short closures only
Special hours work for closures of up to six days in a row. Google's page on editing your business hours describes special hours as the tool for when a business temporarily adjusts its hours and "remains closed for 6 days in a row or fewer." For seven days or more, or if you don't know when you'll reopen, Google says to mark the business as Temporarily closed instead. That's common for businesses that shut down between Christmas and New Year's.
Late nights need two entries
One set of special hours can't run longer than 24 hours. If you're open past midnight, say on New Year's Eve, split it: one set that ends at midnight, and another that starts at midnight on the next day. Google notes that this replaces your regular hours for that next day, so add back any hours you still want to show.
Confirm days when nothing changes
This one surprises people. Google's help page advises confirming your hours for official holidays even if they're the same as your regular hours. If you're open normal hours on Black Friday or Christmas Eve, add the date anyway with your normal times. That tells customers, and Google, that the hours are current and not a guess.
Different hours for different services
If only part of your business changes, like delivery, pickup or a pharmacy counter, Google says to use More hours for those instead of special hours.
If you have more than one location
For several locations, Google supports a bulk spreadsheet. Its help page says to find the Special hours column and enter each date and time in the format YYYY-MM-DD: HH:MM-HH:MM in 24-hour time, with an "x" for closed all day, and multiple dates separated by commas.
One warning from the same page: if you're updating existing locations, include only the store code and special hours columns. Google says empty columns with headings will erase the existing data in those columns. That's an easy way to wipe out every location's phone number by accident.
A holiday checklist for this year
Here are the dates most local businesses need to think about between now and early January:
| Date | Day | Holiday |
|---|---|---|
| November 26, 2026 | Thursday | Thanksgiving |
| November 27, 2026 | Friday | Day after Thanksgiving |
| December 24, 2026 | Thursday | Christmas Eve |
| December 25, 2026 | Friday | Christmas |
| December 31, 2026 | Thursday | New Year's Eve |
| January 1, 2027 | Friday | New Year's Day |
Add other dates that matter for your customers too, like Hanukkah or Kwanzaa events, a staff holiday party, or an inventory day.
Then, for each date:
- Decide your hours, and write them down for staff.
- Add them as special hours on Google.
- Put the same hours on your website, on the contact page and in the footer if hours show there. If your site uses LocalBusiness schema, the hours in the markup should match too.
- Update any other listings you manage, like Apple Maps, Yelp and Facebook.
- Tell regular customers in your email or social posts.
- After the holiday, check that your profile shows regular hours again.
Mistakes we see every year
A few problems come up over and over:
- Setting the hours on the wrong date. It's easy to pick Wednesday when you meant Thursday. Check the day of the week next to each date before you save.
- Forgetting the day after. Plenty of businesses close for Thanksgiving and then open late on Friday. If Friday's hours change, add Friday too.
- One person knows the login. If the only person who can edit the profile is on vacation in December, nobody can fix a mistake. Make sure at least two people on your team have access.
- Changing hours in a hurry. If you close early because of weather or a staffing problem, update special hours for that day as soon as you decide. A late update still beats a customer at a dark storefront.
- Leaving last year's dates in place. Special hours you set last year don't carry over to this year's calendar. Start fresh each season.
Hours on your site matter too
Google isn't the only place customers check. AI tools like ChatGPT and Google's AI answers pull information from your website as well as your profile. If your site says one thing and your profile says another, you're asking for confusion. We wrote about how AI tools find local businesses in does ChatGPT recommend your business.
The simplest rule: one set of hours, everywhere, updated at the same time.
Get it handled
Our local SEO service, from $497 a month, keeps your Google Business Profile complete and current every month, including holiday hours. If you want more reviews coming in over the holidays, our review program starts at $150 a month. And if you're not sure what shape your profile is in, run through our local SEO checklist first.