With Christmas Eve 2025 now declared a federal holiday by President Donald Trump, many are wondering what that will mean for mail delivery as the final holiday shipments are set to arrive.
While many retailers, businesses and federal government offices are closed each year on Christmas Day, this year, things may close earlier in the week and stay closed after the holiday.
An executive order, signed by Trump on Dec. 18, essentially declares Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas 2025 federal holidays, saying “all executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty.”
While the order gives some federal employees Wednesday and Friday off in addition to Thursday, it also said that certain offices will remain open, with other employees required to work for national security, defense or other reasons.
The United States Postal Service confirmed it will be open, with mail delivery, on Dec. 24 and Dec. 26. The post office is closed on Christmas Day, however.
It’s not the first time a president issued an executive order like this during the holiday season.
In 2024, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that said “all executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government” will be closed, and that employees would be “excused from duty on Tuesday, December 24, 2024, the day before Christmas Day.”
President Trump also gave workers Christmas Eve off during his first term.
Though some federal workers this year will get a long weekend, the federal holiday declaration for Dec. 24 and Dec. 26 is not permanent. That’s because in order for a federal holiday to be designated in perpetuity, Congress would need to pass legislation, which then must be signed into law by the president.
This was most recently done in 2021, when President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday.
Trump’s executive order applies to 2025 only.
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