Christmas countdown
How many days until Christmas? The countdown ticks down to Christmas morning in your time zone, with the sleeps, weekends and working days left.
Until Christmas Day, 25 December
- Days
- –
- Hours
- –
- Minutes
- –
- Seconds
- –
- Weekends left Saturday and Sunday
- Working days left Monday to Friday
- Hours left
- Christmas Day
More numbers
- Weeks and days
- Sleeps
- Weekend days
- Minutes left
- Advent Sunday
- Christmas Eve
How it works
Counting down to Christmas morning
The countdown runs to midnight at the start of 25 December in your own time zone, the moment Christmas Day begins where you are. The four boxes count the full days, hours, minutes and seconds left. The sentence under them counts the days on the calendar instead, which is the same as the number of sleeps: the nights left before Christmas morning.
- Sleeps go down by one at midnight. On Christmas Eve there is one sleep to go.
- Weekends left counts each Saturday-and-Sunday weekend before Christmas Day, including the one you’re in.
- Working days left counts Monday to Friday from today up to Christmas Eve, today included. Public holidays and days off differ from place to place, so take those off yourself.
On 25 December the page wishes you a merry Christmas, and from 26 December it counts down to the next one. It all runs in your browser: nothing is sent anywhere.
The days around Christmas
Christmas Day is always 25 December, but the days around it move through the week from year to year, and Advent Sunday moves with them. The dates below are for the Christmas season you’re in.
| Day | Date |
|---|---|
| Advent SundayThe first of the four Sundays of Advent, and the start of the church year in Western churches. | 27 Nov – 3 Dec |
| Christmas EveIn most European countries, the evening when presents are exchanged. | 24 December |
| Christmas DayThe first of the twelve days of Christmas. In North America, presents are opened in the morning. | 25 December |
| Boxing Day, St Stephen’s DayA bank holiday in the UK, where it is Boxing Day, and a public holiday in Ireland, where it is St Stephen’s Day. | 26 December |
| New Year’s EveA week after Christmas Eve, so always on the same weekday. | 31 December |
| New Year’s DayA week after Christmas Day, on the same weekday. | 1 January |
| Twelfth NightThe evening before Epiphany. In Italy, the Befana brings children sweets and presents. | 5 January |
| EpiphanyRemembers the visit of the Magi, the wise men. Some churches keep it on the Sunday between 2 and 8 January. | 6 January |
| Orthodox ChristmasChristmas Day in the Orthodox churches that keep the Julian calendar, which runs 13 days behind. | 7 January |
In the UK, when Christmas Day or Boxing Day falls on a weekend, a weekday becomes the bank holiday instead, normally the following Monday.
The twelve days of Christmas
In Western churches, Christmas is a season, not a single day. The twelve days run from Christmas Day to Epiphany on 6 January, which remembers the visit of the Magi, the wise men who followed the star. The evening before, 5 January, is Twelfth Night.
The twelve days go back to the late 4th century, when the churches of the East and West took up each other’s feasts: the West had celebrated the birth of Jesus on 25 December, the East on 6 January.
The carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” counts gifts over the same twelve days. Each verse repeats all the gifts before it, so by the twelfth day they add up to 364: one for every day of the year but one.
Why 25 December?
The date Jesus was born isn’t known. The oldest record of a Christmas feast is a Roman almanac, the Chronograph of 354, which shows that the church in Rome kept it on 25 December by the year 336. Churches in the East favoured 6 January at first, and some still keep that date or count 25 December by the older Julian calendar, as the table shows.
Counting down to something else, such as a birthday or the New Year? The countdown to a date works for any day and time, and you can share it with a link.
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More ways to tick and pick
Frequently asked questions
How many sleeps until Christmas?
As many as there are nights left before Christmas morning: one on Christmas Eve, two on 23 December, 24 on 1 December. The countdown above shows the number for today, and it goes down by one at midnight where you are. Sleeps always match the days left on the calendar; the clock counts full 24-hour periods, so for most of the day it shows one day fewer, plus hours.
What day of the week is Christmas this year?
The countdown shows it above, worked out from the date on your device. Christmas Day moves one weekday later each year, or two when a 29 February comes in between, so a Christmas on a Friday is followed by one on a Saturday. Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve always share a weekday, and so do Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
Why do some people celebrate on 24 December or 7 January?
In most European countries, presents are exchanged on the evening of Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas morning, as in North America. It fits an old church custom: big feasts begin the evening before, and in the Catholic calendar Sundays and solemnities such as Christmas start on the previous evening. 7 January is 25 December in the Julian calendar, which some Orthodox churches still use for their feasts. It runs 13 days behind the calendar most of the world uses, 14 from 2100. The Armenian Apostolic Church keeps Christmas on 6 January.
When does Advent start?
On the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, the Sunday nearest to 30 November, so always between 27 November and 3 December. Advent has four Sundays and lasts until Christmas Eve, between 22 and 28 days. In Western churches it is also the start of the church year. Many Eastern churches keep a 40-day Nativity Fast before Christmas instead.
Does the countdown use my time zone?
Yes. It counts down to midnight at the start of 25 December where you are, using your device’s clock and time zone, so it reaches zero together with the clocks around you. Christmas starts at a different moment in every time zone: it reaches Sydney many hours before London or New York. If your device’s clock or time zone is wrong, the countdown is too.