The history of executive orders that have given Federal Employees a half-day off for Christmas Eve when Christmas follows on a Friday
Friday Christmases, a Federal History
From 1948 to 2019, Christmas occurred on a Friday eleven times. 2020 will be the first time December 25th is a Friday since 2015. For 8 of those previous years, the President gave Federal workers a half-day on Christmas eve via executive order. Trump announced over the weekend that he will be giving the whole day off to (most) Feds on December 24th for 2020.
- -President Truman gave the half-day in 1948 and Eisenhower did so twice, in both 1953 and 1959. The next time 12/25 fell on a Friday, 1964, Lyndon Johnson did not give Federal workers any time off for the day before. This was following the month in which he won re-election. Nixon resumed the custom Truman and Eisenhower set by giving Feds 4 hours off on 12/24/1970.
- -From 1971 to 1980, there were no Christmas eves on a Thursday. In 1981, Reagan did not give federal employees the day off, but gave them the traditional half-day in 1987. George H.W. Bush chose not to give any time off to Feds on Thursday, 12/24/1992, which was following his November 1992 election loss to Bill Clinton, who in turn did give the four hours off in 1998.
- -George W. Bush’s two terms never experienced a Christmas eve that occurred on a Thursday, but Barrack Obama had two chances and gave Feds the half-day both times: in 2009 and 2015.
Christmas Eve 2020
President Trump has been relatively generous to Federal workers around Christmas time (although the Shutdown around the holidays in 2018 could pose a different argument).
In 2018 and 2019, the 45th president gave Federal workers the whole day off on Christmas Eve- and the date was on a Monday and Tuesday. Not since Franklin Roosevelt had a President given the federal workforce 8 hours on Christmas eve, when the day was on a Tuesday.
Two of the three times that a President has not followed suit, in 1964 and 1992, it was in holiday seasons that directly followed election seasons. Johnson was entering his second term in the sixties, and Bush Senior was amidst a transition to the Clinton administration in the early nineties. The older Bush was also the last one-term president before Trump. As 2020’s holiday season also follows a Presidential election, this Christmas eve was not as sure of a bet as it may have seemed.
Not only is the nation fresh off a divisive election in which the sitting President still won’t concede, but there is also a pandemic raging, uncertainty in congress, and all of this makes Trump’s already unpredictable character even more difficult to guess. Despite all of this, he did decide to give federal employees 8 hours off for Thursday, December 24th, 2020.
----
Until Next Time,
You Might Also Enjoy This Podcast
