Closed for Christmas 2026? Closure message templates and how to catch enquiries over the shutdown

Source: Fair Work Ombudsman, 2026 (opens in a new tab) and 2027 (opens in a new tab) public holidays. Check your state's list for regional holidays.

Two to three weeks before your last day, then again in your final week. Searches for Christmas trading hours spike sharply in the days just before Christmas (Google Trends, past five years), so your hours need to be right on Google before that rush, not after.

Start with your Google Business Profile. Add your closure dates as special hours (opens in a new tab) so Google shows you as closed on the right days instead of your normal hours. It takes two minutes, and it's often the first thing a customer sees.

Copy, fill in the brackets and use them as they are.

Christmas closure email to customers

Christmas closure notice for your website

Christmas out-of-office message

Social post or "closed for Christmas" sign

After-hours chat or DM reply

The first four tell people you're closed. Only the last one answers their question and books them in.

They keep coming. Across four Australian businesses using Sabiya, 22% of customer enquiries already arrive on weekends and public holidays, and 23% of leads and bookings start then. Over a Christmas shutdown, every enquiry arrives while you're closed.

What people ask changes, too. At one service business, daytime visitors mostly asked which option suited them; after hours, more of them asked to book. When the doors are shut, people stop researching and start trying to lock in a time.

We don't have Christmas data yet (our sample runs from March to October 2026). We'll publish what actually happened over this shutdown in January.

• Update your Google Business Profile special hours → Google shows the right days, not your normal hours.
• Put the website banner up two weeks early → people know your dates before they plan around them.
• Open January bookings now → people who are ready can book while you're away.
• Answer your top 10 questions on your website (prices, services, areas, availability) → people get answers without waiting for you.
• Set your out-of-office and social replies → every channel gives the same dates.
• Cover Instagram and Messenger, not just email → DMs go cold just as fast as calls.
• Decide what counts as urgent and who handles it → one rule, no checking your phone at lunch on Boxing Day.
• Plan your first morning back → overnight and holiday enquiries get answered first, while they're still warm.

An AI answering service for your website, Instagram and Messenger, like Sabiya, covers the last few points for you: it answers questions and takes January bookings while you're away, then gives your team a clear list when you're back.

You don't have to, and most customers don't expect you to. What they want is an answer to their question and a clear next step. Set honest expectations in every message, give them a way to book, and keep one simple rule for anything genuinely urgent. Then switch off.