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What The Christmas Countdown Works Out
- Days until Christmas: the number of days from today to 25 December, rolling over to next year's Christmas once the day has passed, and the same figure in sleeps, the unit that matters to anyone under ten. The advent calendar starts on 1 December with 24 doors whatever the arithmetic of the year.
- Christmas Day falls on: the day of the week, which shapes the whole holiday. A weekend Christmas pushes the bank holidays into the following week; a Thursday or Friday Christmas creates the long bridged break that empties offices from the 23rd.
- Shopping weekends left: the number of Saturdays between now and Christmas, the honest measure of remaining preparation time once work and school fill the weekdays.
- Count down to (advanced): switch the target to Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, 1 December, New Year's Day or Twelfth Night (5 January, when decorations traditionally come down). The weekday and bank holiday cards still describe that season's Christmas.
- Count from (advanced): start the countdown from any date instead of today, for example to check how many working days a school term or a new job leaves before the holidays.
- Weeks and days (advanced): the same countdown broken into whole weeks and days, with months and hours for anyone who needs the countdown to sound longer or shorter.
- Working days left (advanced): Mondays to Fridays strictly between the two dates. UK bank holidays other than Christmas are not removed, so knock one off if the countdown spans the August or May bank holidays.
- Pay days before then (advanced): how many times your pay day lands before the big day, given the day of the month you are paid. Pay days that would fall after the end of a short month are taken as the last day of that month. Many employers pay early in December, so the last one may arrive sooner than shown.
- Christmas bank holidays (advanced): the actual bank holiday dates for that year. Christmas Day and Boxing Day are both bank holidays across the UK, with substitute weekdays declared whenever either lands on a weekend.
- Key festive dates (advanced): a table of the season's landmarks with days to go: Stir-up Sunday (the last Sunday before Advent, traditionally pudding-making day), Advent Sunday, 1 December, the last Saturday before Christmas, Christmas Eve and Day, Boxing Day, New Year and Twelfth Night. Royal Mail's last posting dates fall in mid-to-late December, supermarket Christmas delivery slots are often released and booked in November, and the big sales now start before Christmas rather than after.