Restaurant marketing calendar 2026–2027

The big food dates from Diwali 2026 to Christmas 2027 are below, each with the day to open bookings and pre-orders. Most customers decide where to order or eat a holiday meal days or weeks before the day itself. So the date that matters for a restaurant is when the menu goes live, not the holiday. Every date here was checked against a government calendar or the authority that sets it. Moon-based festivals are marked as expected, because they depend on the moon sighting.

Create your free ordering pageMake a printable holiday order form

The calendar at a glance

"Open by" is a planning suggestion, not a rule. Ramadan and Eid follow the Islamic calendar, so they can move by a day between countries once the moon is sighted. Diwali and Chinese New Year follow lunisolar calendars and land on different dates each year.

How far ahead to open, by type of order

Different orders need different lead times. A family booking a Christmas party table plans much further ahead than someone ordering a box of sweets.

A worked example: planning backwards from Diwali

Take a sweet shop that wants to sell 400 sweet boxes for Diwali on Sun 8 Nov 2026. Working back from the day:

For Diwali 2027 (Fri 29 Oct), move every step about ten days earlier. The same backward plan works for every row of the calendar: pick the day, then count back the lead time for what you sell.

How to run each season in Menuthere

Each season uses the same few switches, so once you set one up the next takes minutes.

1. Put the seasonal menu online. Add the dishes to your menu, or upload a photo or PDF of your printed seasonal menu; AI reads the dishes and prices for you to check. Every plan, including Free, has a QR code menu and 0% commission.
2. Take pre-orders for a date and time (Lite). Turn on prebooking. Pick a date range, how many days ahead people can book, and fixed collection or delivery slots. For items that need notice, such as a sweet box or a pie, choose Specific items, set the Earliest booking time (for example 2 days) and the days they are made. See pre-orders and table booking.
3. Take table bookings (Lite). Guests book a date, a sitting and the number of people from your menu. You get a reminder an hour before.
4. Run an offer with a discount code (Lite). Codes can be limited to dates and to days of the week, plus a minimum order and a use limit. They can't be limited to a time of day.
5. Tell customers. A pop-up banner on your menu (Lite) can run between two dates, for example "Christmas orders close 20 December". On Pro you can send a WhatsApp broadcast from your own number. Meta charges for every marketing message, on your own WhatsApp account, at a price set by the customer's country. A restaurant with its own branded app (US$99 a month) can send push notifications to app users instead.

Plans: Free US$0, Lite US$17 a month, Pro US$39 a month, all billed in US dollars. Lite and Pro have a 7-day free trial; a card is needed to start, and nothing is charged until it ends. See pricing.

Free tools for each season

• Holiday order form: a printable pre-order form for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Diwali, Easter or Eid.
• Festival offer poster maker: a poster for your window or social media.
• Holiday hours and closed sign: tell customers when you're shut over the holidays.
• Printable menu maker: turn a set menu into a print-ready PDF.
• Menu price calculator: price a set menu from its cost.
• Cake order form and loyalty card maker: for bakeries and return visits.

Put your next seasonal menu online today with 0% commission.

Create your free ordering page