Set your holiday hours on Google before Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. If your Google listing doesn't say what you're doing that week, Google guesses, and customers guess with it.
Why this matters more for you than for a mall store
Big chains have someone whose job is updating hours. A plumber, a tree crew, a tire shop or a detailer usually doesn't. So on Thanksgiving weekend the listings that look reliable are the ones that bothered to say "open" or "closed" ahead of time.
If you're a service business that actually works holidays (emergency plumbing, towing, HVAC on a cold night), this is your window. Most of your competitors will show nothing. A listing that says "Open 8 AM–4 PM · Thanksgiving" gets the call.
Google wants you to confirm, even if nothing changes
Google's own help page says to confirm your hours for official holidays even when they match your regular hours, because that "makes it clear to customers that your special hours are accurate." In plain words: an unconfirmed holiday looks like a question mark to the person deciding whether to drive over.
The 2026 dates to set now
- Veterans Day · Wednesday, November 11
- Thanksgiving · Thursday, November 26
- Day after Thanksgiving · Friday, November 27 (set it either way; many shops close, many don't)
- Christmas Eve · Thursday, December 24
- Christmas Day · Friday, December 25
- New Year's Eve · Thursday, December 31
- New Year's Day · Friday, January 1, 2027
Takes about five minutes to do all seven. Do it once in November and you're covered through the new year.
How to set them (two minutes per date)
- Search your business name on Google while signed in to the account that manages the profile.
- Click Edit profile, then Hours.
- Next to Special hours, click the pencil, pick the date, and set the hours or mark it closed.
- Save. Repeat for each date above.
Google's steps are here if the buttons look different on your screen.
Two things that quietly break this
- Your main hours have to be set to "Open with main hours." If your profile is set to any other hours option, special hours won't show at all. Check that first.
- Closing for a week or more is not "special hours." Google treats up to 6 days in a row as special hours. If you're shutting down for 7 or more days over the holidays, use the Temporarily closed option instead, then reopen it the day you're back. Leaving it as a string of "closed" days past 6 confuses the listing.
While you're in there
Holiday hours are the one time of year most owners open the Hours screen. Look at the regular hours too. If they still say what you set when you opened the profile, odds are at least one day is wrong. Wrong regular hours cost you customers 52 weeks a year, not one.