Holiday custody schedule template

Holidays override the pattern

Whatever rotation you use during term time, holidays are handled as exceptions: for the dates in question, the holiday rule decides who has the children, and afterwards the normal pattern resumes as if nothing had happened. Nobody recalculates. Nobody "owes" days back.

There are three kinds of rule, and almost every family plan is a combination of them:

Build the calendar with holidays on it

Start with your term-time pattern, then add the presets below the holiday section. Each one can be switched between the three rule types. The calendar shows twelve months so you can see how the year falls.

A template that works for most families

Christmas and New Year. Split into two blocks: 24 to 26 December, and 31 December to 1 January. One parent has the first block, the other has the second, and they swap every year. Both parents get a Christmas every other year and a New Year in between.

Easter. Alternate the long weekend (Good Friday to Easter Monday). Because Easter moves, add it as a one-off each year with the actual dates.

Summer. Split the school holiday into halves and alternate which parent has the first half. Families with fixed annual leave sometimes prefer two weeks each in a set order, with the remaining weeks on the normal pattern.

Half-terms and short breaks. Many parents leave these on the normal rotation. If you want a whole-week block, alternate them.

Birthdays. The child's birthday is usually left on the normal pattern, with a few hours for the other parent if it falls on their day. Parents' own birthdays and Mother's and Father's Day belong to that parent every year.

Agreeing it without a fight

1. Do it early. Christmas by the end of October; summer by the end of February. Late is when it gets heated.
2. Send a calendar, not a paragraph. Use the link under the calendar above. A picture of the year is harder to misread than a list of dates.
3. Propose, do not announce. "Here is what I suggest for the summer; tell me what does not work" gets a better answer than "This is the plan."
4. Keep the term-time pattern out of it. Holidays are exceptions. Renegotiating the whole schedule every December is how families end up with no schedule at all.

Once it is agreed

Put it somewhere both of you can see it. A shared calendar that shows the holiday rules alongside the everyday rotation, with change requests that get a clear yes or no, is exactly what PeaceParent is for. If you keep the calendar from this page, print it and stick it on the fridge in both homes.