Will Christmas Eve Be a Federal Holiday?

Grace, age 10, asks about Christmas Eve as a federal holiday, the Potomac, and how bills pass


Dear Santa,
Hello from Washington, D.C. My name is Grace and I am 10 years old. My dad works for the government, so every December our whole family pays very close attention to whether he gets extra days off around Christmas, and this year there was a lot of talk on the news about it.
My first question is: will Christmas Eve become a permanent federal holiday?
My second question is geography: what river flows past Washington, D.C.?
My third question is from school: how does a bill actually become a federal holiday in the United States?
I left you a slice of pumpkin pie, since we always seem to have leftovers well past Thanksgiving.
Love, Grace, age 10, Washington, D.C., USA
From the Desk of Father Christmas
Dear Grace, leftover pumpkin pie is one of the great gifts of the season, so thank you very much. Now, to your very current questions.
Will Christmas Eve become a permanent federal holiday?
As of now, Christmas Eve is not a permanent federal holiday in the United States, only Christmas Day itself holds that official status under federal law. What happens most years is that a sitting president signs an executive order granting federal employees Christmas Eve, and sometimes the day after Christmas, off as a temporary holiday for that particular year, something presidents from both parties have done many times over the years, most recently for the 2025 holiday season. For Christmas Eve to become a true, permanent, year after year federal holiday, Congress would need to pass a law and the president would need to sign it, which has not happened so far. So your dad extra days off tend to depend on a fresh decision each year rather than a permanent rule, at least for now.
What river flows past Washington, D.C.?
The Potomac River flows right past the city, separating Washington, D.C. from Virginia. It has played a role in the city's history since the very beginning, and every spring its banks are famously lined with cherry blossom trees.
How does a bill become a federal holiday?
For any new federal holiday to be made permanent, a member of Congress must introduce a bill, which then needs to pass both the House of Representatives and the Senate before it can be sent to the president to sign into law. It can take a great deal of debate and years of effort, as it did for holidays like Juneteenth, which finally became a federal holiday in 2021. It is not a quick process, but it does show how much thought and negotiation goes into deciding what the whole country pauses to mark together.
Give your dad my best, whichever way this year turns out, and I shall see you soon.
Ho ho ho, Santa https://santaclaus.top/will-christmas-eve-be-a-federal-holiday/

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