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Thanksgiving and Christmas rotation planner

Your family, your in-laws, one Thanksgiving and one Christmas. Enter who is involved and which holidays you share out. You get a plan for the next few years, a count per family, and a link you can send to both sides.

Reorder the names to change who gets which holiday in the start year. Names live in the link only. Nothing is saved on the server.

Holidays to split
How to rotate

Holiday plan 2026–2033: Sam's parents, Alex's parents

2026–2033: Sam's parents and Alex's parents

Holiday plan, who has which holiday each year
Year ThanksgivingChristmas EveChristmas Day
2026 Sam's parentsThu Nov 26 Sam's parentsThu Dec 24 Sam's parentsFri Dec 25
2027 Alex's parentsThu Nov 25 Alex's parentsFri Dec 24 Alex's parentsSat Dec 25
2028 Sam's parentsThu Nov 23 Sam's parentsSun Dec 24 Sam's parentsMon Dec 25
2029 Alex's parentsThu Nov 22 Alex's parentsMon Dec 24 Alex's parentsTue Dec 25
2030 Sam's parentsThu Nov 28 Sam's parentsTue Dec 24 Sam's parentsWed Dec 25
2031 Alex's parentsThu Nov 27 Alex's parentsWed Dec 24 Alex's parentsThu Dec 25
2032 Sam's parentsThu Nov 25 Sam's parentsFri Dec 24 Sam's parentsSat Dec 25
2033 Alex's parentsThu Nov 24 Alex's parentsSat Dec 24 Alex's parentsSun Dec 25
How many of each holiday every family gets: Holiday plan, who has which holiday each year
Count ThanksgivingChristmas EveChristmas Day Total
Sam's parents 444 12
Alex's parents 444 12

Even: every family has the same number of each holiday over these 8 years.

Does it look fair?

A list of years can look balanced and still hand one side more Christmases. Under the grid, the count table adds up every holiday per family: how many Thanksgivings, Christmas Eves and Christmas Days each one gets over the whole span, and the total.

If the numbers differ, the table says by how much. That usually means the plan stops in the middle of a cycle, so adding or dropping a year fixes it. Show both sides the counts before anyone argues about the dates.

How it works

Each holiday moves to the next family every year, in the order you list them. The four rotations differ in where each holiday starts. With "Swap everything", one family has all of them and the other has none that year. With "Mix them up", the family that has Thanksgiving does not also have Christmas Eve.

The count table shows what each family gets of each holiday. A holiday visits every family once per cycle, which is 2 years for two families and 3 for three. Any span that is a whole number of cycles comes out even. A span that stops mid-cycle shows a warning with the difference.

Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November, the US date. The page does not know about Canadian or other dates, and it does not know about your travel, kids or work shifts. It is a starting point for a conversation, and you can change the start year or the order of the names until the first year suits both sides.

Nothing is saved on the server. The plan is the web address, so sending the link sends the plan, and anyone who opens it can change it for themselves. To keep it, print it or save the link.

New to the topic? Read how to split holidays between two families for the common patterns, or alternating Christmas years with in-laws for the yearly swap. Ready to share it? See how to tell your parents you're alternating holidays.

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