Christmas Countdown 2026

How many days until Christmas 2026?

The countdown at the top of the page answers this for the exact moment you are reading it. The big number is the count of calendar days from today to Christmas Day, the same figure you would get by crossing days off a calendar. Underneath, the live clock shows the precise time left to midnight on 25 December, down to the second.

You will also see the same wait in other units:

• Weeks and days. On 18 December there is exactly 1 week to go; on 1 December, 3 weeks and 3 days.
• Weekends. The number of Saturdays left before Christmas Day, including today if it is a Saturday. Handy for planning shopping trips and visits.
• Hours. The total hours left on the live clock.
• Sleeps. The number of nights left, for younger children.
• Advent day. From 1 to 24 December, which door of the Advent calendar you are on.

Christmas Day 2026 is on a Friday. For the whole of 25 December the page celebrates instead of counting, so nobody opening it on Christmas morning sees “364 days to go”. At midnight after Christmas Day, it starts counting to next year.

How many sleeps until Christmas?

Children usually count sleeps, the nights left before Christmas morning. We count one sleep for each night between today and Christmas Day, so sleeps match the number of days: on 23 December there are 2 sleeps, on Christmas Eve there is 1 more sleep, and on Christmas Day there are none left. Some websites add one extra; we don’t, because Christmas Eve night is the last sleep.

Turn on Kids view to show the sleeps as one big number. In December it also shows an Advent calendar bar that fills up one door a day.

Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Countdowns in Europe, the US and the UK

In the US, the UK, Ireland, Australia and many other countries, presents are opened on the morning of 25 December, so the countdown runs to midnight at the start of Christmas Day. In much of central and northern Europe, including Germany, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the Nordic countries, the main celebration is on the evening of 24 December. Families there often count down to Christmas Eve instead.

Use the Count down to buttons to switch between Christmas Day, Christmas Eve at midnight and Christmas Eve at 6 pm. You can also count down to St Nicholas Day on 6 December, New Year, or Orthodox Christmas on 7 January, celebrated by churches that follow the older Julian calendar, such as the Russian and Serbian Orthodox churches.

When does Christmas arrive around the world?

Christmas doesn’t arrive everywhere at once. The first inhabited place to reach midnight on 25 December is Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, in Kiribati, at 14 hours ahead of UTC. New Zealand and eastern Australia follow, then Asia, Europe and Africa, and finally the Americas. Among the last inhabited places is American Samoa, at 11 hours behind UTC. The uninhabited Baker and Howland islands, at UTC−12, are the very last. From the first place to the last is 26 hours.

Open When Christmas arrives around the world under the countdown to see when it reaches each city, converted to your own time. On Christmas Eve the list tracks which places have already arrived. To count down with family abroad, choose their city in the time zone menu and share the link: it opens with the same city selected.

Countdowns that rely on a server’s location can be wrong if you are travelling or use a VPN. This one uses your device’s own time zone and always shows which zone it is using. It also checks your device clock against our server and warns you if it is more than a minute out.

Christmas countdown for classrooms and TVs

Press Full screen, or the F key, to fill the screen with the countdown. Large numbers stay readable from the back of a classroom or across an office, and the buttons and mouse pointer hide themselves after a few seconds. Where your browser allows it, the screen is kept awake while the countdown is showing; on other devices, set the screen timeout in your settings. Press T to change the colour (red, green, night or minimal) and Esc to leave full screen.

Add falling snow with the Snow button. If your device is set to reduce motion, snow stays off and the clock simply updates each second. For screen reader users, the countdown is read out once a minute rather than every second.

Advent, Hanukkah, Boxing Day and other December dates in 2026

Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, so it moves each year between 27 November and 3 December, while Advent calendars usually start on 1 December whatever the weekday. Hanukkah follows the Hebrew calendar, so its dates change every year; it begins at sundown.

Christmas dates for the next 5 years

Christmas Day moves one weekday later each year, and two weekdays later in a leap year. When it falls on a weekend, many employers and some countries give a substitute day off; check your local holiday calendar.

Last updated: 2026-11-14