Click to jump to section:
- Comprehensive Annual Holiday Visitation Schedule
- School Break Visitation
- How To Create a Holiday Parent-Time Schedule?
- How to Get a Firm Holiday Visitation Schedule
- Ensure a Reliable Holiday Visitation Schedule
Having a comprehensive holiday parent-time schedule can be important for your children, you, and your co-parent throughout the year. Unfortunately, the general court-ordered parenting-time schedule often does not detail all the special arrangements necessary for all holiday parent-time. A more thorough plan is often needed for both parents to have time with their child(ren) on all the important occasions families want to share throughout the year.
Below is a starter list of holidays and other typical annual family occasions. You can use this framework to create a thorough holiday visitation schedule to supplement your pending or existing court-required parent-time agreement. Add all occasions that both you and your ex-spouse want to include in the parent-time schedule.
Form a plan that you and your ex-spouse agree allows you both all reasonable opportunities to enjoy holiday parent-time with your children. Then, the court can modify its pending or existing order to include the new holiday parent-time schedule.
Comprehensive Annual Holiday Visitation Schedule
Start with this list of holidays and the other usual days for family time. Insert your additional family occasions to build out a holiday schedule that you and your co-parent both agree includes all the annual days it should. Then, it can be submitted to the court for inclusion in the parent-time schedule:
New Year’s Day | Thanksgiving Day |
Spring Break | Day after Thanksgiving |
Mother’s Day | Winter Break |
Father’s Day | New Year’s Eve |
Memorial Day | New Year’s Day |
Summer Break | Martin Luther King Jr. Day |
4th of July | President’s Day |
Labor Day | Children’s Birthdays |
Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day | Father’s Birthday |
Halloween | Mother’s Birthday |
Veterans Day | Religious Holidays (such as Easter, Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan) |
To ensure the least controversy throughout future years of adhering to the parent-time schedule, go through the annual calendar carefully. Add every special day, including religious days your family observes, birthdays, and other personal celebrations to the list of occasions.
School Break Visitation
Weeks and months of school breaks total a large part of the year, in terms of potential for child visitation opportunities. During periods of weeks or months of continuous time with one parent, it is often necessary to schedule certain days for the other parent to celebrate religious practices, birthdays, other family occasions with the child(ren).
Plans for extended parent-time periods should be clear on the need for modified arrangements for childcare. They should also include clear commitments from both parents on their desire and ability to have their child(ren) spend these extended periods with them, or not.
How To Create a Holiday Parent-Time Schedule?
These are common options of approaches to creating a holiday parent-time schedule that you and your co-parent may want to consider using:
- Permanent schedule: Each parent could choose the holidays he or she will have the children spend with him/her and that schedule will not be altered in the future.
- Alternating years: Each parent could have some holidays during one year and then switch holidays with the other parent the next year.
- Splitting the holiday: If co-parents live near each other and have maintained an amicable rapport, they could split their child’s holiday time to spend some hours with each parent.
How to Get a Firm Holiday Visitation Schedule
Unless you specify to the judge each holiday and family occasion that you want to include in the parent-time schedule, it might not be written into the court order. When the holiday visitation schedule is lacking:
- Your co-parent and you can choose to agree on a holiday parent-time schedule and cooperate throughout the future.
- Or, you may prefer to solidify the agreement by having your child visitation rights lawyer submit it to the court for approval to make it part of the court-mandated parent-time schedule.
To Ensure a Reliable Holiday Visitation Schedule
We can help you develop the complete holiday visitation schedule your family needs and have it processed and submitted for potential approval by the court for you.
