Christmas Eve is a holiday where I work, as is Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I usually host Christmas and I start preparations. Also, the kids like to get together to open gifts and play board games in the evening.

At my job, thery usually let us out an hour early on Christmas Eve. They always asked for a volunteer or two to answer the phone and stay till five. Me, I always scurried home, to avoid the drunk drivers. I'm retired now, so I have all the time in the world.

When I worked, I got a half day off for Christmas Eve. If Christmas fell on a Sunday or Monday, I had to work the full day the Friday before. I always used that time to prepare what foods I could ahead of time, last minute wrapping, and just last minute 'whatevers' that needed done.

Shirley

The last jobs I had were in retail, so I always had to work on Christmas Eve. I think we did get off early (around 6:00), but I'd end up going home and doing last minute things for the next day.

DH works for a large company and is off from Christmas Eve until sometime after the 1st. He's going to enjoy it, although 2 weeks of 'togetherness' is a little much for me. :-)

For years, I worked out of sales offices, and we went skeleton crew for the days between Christmas and New Years...each one of us took a day "in office", just to respond to critical calls.
We were always off on Christmas eve and New Year's eve.

Yup! We close at noon on Christmas Eve and will remain closed till Monday at 8am!

No time off on Christmas Eve, if you're scheduled you have to work the whole shift, but you get holiday pay along with your regular pay! But, I work in a hospital so it's a little different, can't abandon the patients. However, if we are overstaffed and have only so many patients someone may be able to take comp time and go home early.

This year we get three days holiday pay: Christmas Eve, Christmas day and the 26th!

We always got off early on Chritmas Eve when I worked sometime it was easier than others. I worked in a commercial finance dept at the bank and we loaned money to our coustomers until the wires closed so it was a matter of calling and asking if they needed any on that day and to get their info in early.
Once all our clients called in before noon so I let everyone else go. When the boss came in she was shocked but hey all the work was done.
I alway get home fast and got ready for Chritmas eve. I used to make Spaghetti and salads etc and we'd serve about 9 pm when my BIL would get off work then it was fun for all the boys and going to My sis's house to look at her tree etc. Then either I would have Christmas dinner or my sister the next day miss those jolly times.

For the first time, this year I'm off before Christmas as well as afterwards. But normally I work up to Christmas Eve and then take vacation the next week.

If I were working on Christmas Eve, our department normally lets us go around 1 p.m. Not all departments follow that guideline ... some let their folks go at lunchtime, while others wait until 3-ish to let them go.

What would I do with the extra time off? Stop by the grocery on the way home for anything I needed for Christmas dinner, and then head home to take care of any last minute things to do. Since I've been an adult, I've always had children, so there was the responsibility to ensure they had the magic of the season.

I work until noon Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. I have the days in between Xmas and New years booked off as well as Jan. 2nd so I don't go back until Jan.5th. For years I worked in retail and had to work day and night right through the holidays except for Xmas day. I love this time off now!

I worked at 24/7 places for over 40 years..so no early closures were possible. My last employment (20 years)was micromanaged for a time by the boss's wife, who believed all holidays were "Yankee holidays" and didn't recognize them. Bad feelings all around! And take off the day after Christmas? Fugediboudit!

Thank whatever the owner hired a General Manager who is allowed to do his job and the wife is restricted to certain responsibilities and those only. The staff is much happier; and I'm glad, even though I'm no longer there on a daily basis.

I still miss my office "family."

I'm on CHristmas break from December 19th thru January 4th. Got a freebie day today with the snow storm.

I love this holiday season!

SamKaren
your resident DJ

Christmas is the start of the summer break here. Most schools finished yesterday (for approx 6 weeks) and a few companies close down completely. DH finished up yesterday and his company is closed until 19th January so he gets a nice long break (hmmm where's that honey-do list?) By law every employee gets 4 weeks paid annual leave (after a continuous one years employment) and most people like to take it during the summer months provided it suits the company they work for.
I've been with the company I'm with for less than a year but have a number of days of Annual leave accrued and because it's so quiet between Christmas & New Year I'll be taking those few days off. We also get a "Company Day" where they give us the 24th off but will pay us for it. They are very generous in many ways ... we had a great Xmas party (all expenses paid) last Saturday, a huge ham yesterday as a gift and I've also heard a rumour that there may be a bonus cheque to come! Oh and a catered lunch, drinks etc on the 23rd which is the last day of work before Xmas. There's bound to be a raucous game of cricket or two in the carpark which will be fun!

In the last 2 years, we have been closed on Christmas Eve day and Christmas. When we were open on Christmas Eve, it was not worth it. Then we open again on Friday and Saturday. We have our holiday party in January, because under normal circumstances, we are so busy that more than 1/2 our crew would not be able to attend as they would still be working.

I sure hope the economy picks up soon!!

Hubs and I both work for the State of California. Traditionally, the Governor grants every employee four hours of Informal Time Off that can be used on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve. If for some reason you have to (or choose to) work a full day on both "Eves," you can take the four hours on any day of your choosing, as long as it is not taken before December 24. I generally don't schedule my ITO for either Eve, because we always get cut loose early anyway -- why waste the hours? I then use the 4 hours ITO in conjunction with 4 hours vacation for a full day off on a day of my choosing.

Hubs is in a work week group that doesn't get charged time off if they're off for less than a full day, so he can't ever just use the 4 hours ITO by itself. The only way he can use it is to combine it with 4 hours vacation and take a full day.

We're both taking all of next week off, so we'll use the ITO on Dec. 24 or Dec 26 (we get 8 hours holiday pay for the 25th).

I work for local government - no holiday or shortened day on Christmas Eve - I am taking vacation though.

My husband works for the local utility company. Traditionally, on Christmas Eve, they work about a half day, head back to the office around noon, where the company has a buffet lunch for them, and they usually leave by about 1. So it's basically a half day.

This year, I'm not so sure. There is SO much work, so much overtime. On top of the heavy work load, they just moved their office today, so there's a lot of organizing, etc, with that as well. DH (a bill collector) has worked overtime every day this week and will be working a full 8 hours tomorrow. The meter readers are working BOTH Saturday and SUNDAY (our meter will be read on Sunday, according to an automated call I received from the company today). So with all that, I'm kind of doubtful that they'll get out very early on Christmas this time around.

If he does get out early, DH will head home and we'll spend a quiet evening together. Finishing up getting ready for the holiday, he'll make his usual Christmas Eve Pita Pizzas, maybe we'll take a quick spin around the neighborhood to look at the Christmas lights, catch a bit of the red rider bb gun movie...

I got off really early....really really

Sept of 67 and haven't been back since.

pattico you crack me up!!! never thought of it that way !!!

We get Christmas Eve and Christmas day as holidays. Yesterday the University sent a mass e-mail they are also giving us the 26th as a holiday. WooHoo! They didn't want to heat up the buildings for just one day. I had scheduled the 26th as vacation, so I moved it the the 2nd. (We also get New Years Eve and New Years day as holidays.) Two five day weekends back to back. It will be hard to go back on the 5th!

The center will close at 3 on Christmas Eve instead of 6:30. That means I lose 3 1/2 hours pay. I get paid for Christmas day off.

I work civil service for our local school district (Senior Typist). Our contracted days off include Christmas Eve, Christmas, and the day after. This year that means Wednesday, Thursday, Friday...and Saturday and Sunday, too!! If hindsight were 20/20 I should have gotten into this job 30+ years ago, but better late than never ;o)

My organization works with the homeless and other 'disadvantaged' people. Any holiday is a tough time for these folks so it's a busy time for us. This year for the first time I can remember we are closing the office up at 2:30 but the case workers (I'm not one of those) will be on-call and the retail stores will be open until 6pm. I'm sure we'll have customers angry because we closed at 6.

DH always worked as management in retail,and he got home about 7 in the evening,and had to be back at work at 9 on Boxing Day.I worked at the post office,so I usually had to work until 5,but had to wait for him to get off because we drove to work together...thankfully I was always off on Boxing Day,because we always had my brother and family for dinner and overnight that day.

I'm off on Christmas Eve. I'll have plenty to do - my tree's not even decorated yet. And off to church in the evening.
Hope you all enjoy whatever time you have off for the Christmas holiday.

Since I sub in the schools, I'm off when the kids are off. Which is now until Jan. 6. DH's office is closed the 24, 25, 26th, 31 and 1st. They still have tech support, but thankfully he's on call this week, so he won't have that duty on his days off. We will spend it cleaning the house up so we'll have it nice the next day.

Before kids, I was a college student and worked retail and worked Christmas Eve. When I did get home that evening, I was worn out from studying for exams and the extra work hours of the previous weeks and just slept!

Well, today I found out I misunderstood, they've changed Christmas Eve as a holiday to the 26th, so we still only get two paid holidays, not three. I knew it was too good to be true.