December 2026 food holidays and promotion ideas for restaurants

The December 2026 dates that matter most to a US restaurant are Hanukkah, from sundown on Friday, December 4, to nightfall on Saturday, December 12; Christmas Eve on Thursday, December 24; Christmas Day on Friday, December 25; Kwanzaa, from Saturday, December 26, to Friday, January 1; and New Year's Eve on Thursday, December 31. Between them sit three weeks of office holiday parties, on the 13 weekdays from Monday, December 7, to Wednesday, December 23. Christmas falling on a Friday gives a three-day weekend, so plan your hours for the 24th to the 27th early.

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December 2026 at a glance

Food days come from National Day Calendar, a private registry, so they are marketing hooks, not official holidays. The winter solstice is an astronomical date: NASA lists it on December 21, and the National Weather Service in Tucson gives the time as 1:50 p.m. MST.

Month-long observances

• National Cookie Cutter Week starts December 1 (National Day Calendar). Pair it with cookie decorating kits to go.
• Las Posadas starts December 16 on National Day Calendar, which files it under food and drink. If your kitchen serves Mexican food, tamales by the dozen fit the run-up to Christmas Eve.
• Twelve Days of Christmas starts December 25 on National Day Calendar.

Which December dates are worth a promotion?

Office holiday parties (Monday, December 7, to Wednesday, December 23)

What to sell: a catered lunch pack priced per head, in sizes for 15 and 30, delivered or picked up on weekdays. You can fill these dates weeks ahead, and they use your kitchen at lunchtime rather than during dinner service. See the worked example below and our page on online ordering for catering. How far ahead: open bookings in early November, about five weeks before the first date. Ready-to-use line: "Holiday lunch for your team, sorted: hot buffet for 15 or 30, delivered with plates and chafing dishes. Book a weekday from Dec 7 to Dec 23."

Hanukkah (sundown Friday, December 4, to Saturday, December 12)

What to sell: foods fried in oil, which Chabad describes as a Hanukkah custom: potato latkes with applesauce or sour cream, and jelly-filled doughnuts. A "Hanukkah family platter" with a dozen latkes and a half-dozen doughnuts works for pickup on each of the eight nights. How far ahead: two weeks. Post it by Friday, November 20. Ready-to-use line: "Eight nights of latkes: order a family platter with 12 latkes, applesauce, sour cream and 6 jelly doughnuts. Pickup from Fri, Dec 4."

Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve (Thursday, December 24, and Thursday, December 31)

What to sell: a Christmas Eve family meal to go for 4 or 8, picked up by early afternoon, and a New Year's Eve set menu in two seatings. Our Christmas menu templates (UK English) and New Year's Eve menu templates (UK English) have layouts you can copy and change to US dishes, prices and spelling; the Christmas pre-order guide (UK English) covers collection slots. For a printable order sheet, use the Christmas preset in the holiday order form. How far ahead: open both in mid-November; close Christmas Eve orders on Sunday, December 20. Ready-to-use line: "Christmas Eve, handled: dinner for 4 or 8, ready to reheat. Order by Sun, Dec 20; pick up Thu, Dec 24 by 2 p.m."

Promo copy you can paste

Email to your own list (send from your email tool):

Pop-up banner on your menu: "Office holiday lunches for 15 or 30: book a weekday from Dec 7 to Dec 23." Announcement bar (under 100 characters): "Christmas Eve dinners to go: order by Sun 12/20, pickup Thu 12/24" Social caption: "The office party where nobody has to cook: hot buffet for 15 or 30, delivered with everything you need. Book at the link."

Under CAN-SPAM, a promo email needs an honest subject line, your valid postal address and a clear way to opt out, and opt-outs must be honored within 10 business days (FTC). If your customers order on WhatsApp, keep it for order updates: Meta does not deliver marketing template messages to US (+1) phone numbers, so in the US WhatsApp sends order updates (utility messages, about US$0.0034 each), not promotions. Use email for offers. More in WhatsApp ordering for US restaurants.

Worked example: an office holiday lunch pack for 15 or 30

These are example figures only. Use your own recipes, supplier prices and delivery costs.

A pack for 15 costs $150.00 to make. At a 32% target food cost, $150.00 ÷ 0.32 = $468.75, so a menu price of $475 (about $31.67 a guest) puts cost at 31.6%. The pack for 30 costs $300.00; at $930 (exactly $31.00 a guest) cost is 32.3%. A $25-off early-booking code with a $450 minimum takes the 15-guest pack to $450 and its cost to 33.3%.

Twelve lunches across the 13 weekdays from December 7 to December 23 is fewer than one a day, but bookings rarely spread evenly, so decide now how many you can send out on one day. Menuthere doesn't cap orders per slot: when a day is full, take that weekday out of Only made on for the week, then add it back. Hot food should stay at or above 140°F in chafing dishes and shouldn't sit out of refrigeration for more than 2 hours (USDA FSIS), so print that on the delivery label. Price your own version with the menu price calculator and our guide to how to price menu items.

Your December prep timeline

How to run December promotions in Menuthere

1. Put the December menu online (Free). Add the lunch packs as one dish with two sizes (15 and 30 guests), or upload a photo or PDF of your printed holiday menu; AI reads the dishes and prices for you to check. Print the free QR code for tables and flyers. All plans have 0% commission. When Hanukkah ends, mark the platter out of stock.
2. Take office lunch pre-orders (Lite, US$17 a month). Turn on Prebooking, choose Specific items and tick the lunch packs, set the Earliest booking time to 3 days and set Only made on to Monday to Friday. Set the Date range from December 7 to December 23. These settings are shared with any other dish that needs notice, so if you also take Christmas Eve orders, end the range on December 24 and write in the pack's description that the last office date is December 23. See dishes that need notice.
3. Book New Year's Eve seatings (Lite). In the Dine-in half of Prebooking settings, add two evening table time slots (for example 5:30–7:30 PM and 8:30–11:00 PM) and switch on Ask number of people. Slots aren't set per calendar date, so set them for New Year's week and change them back afterwards. You get a push alert an hour before each booking. There's no deposit or card hold, so call large parties to confirm. See table booking.
4. Set the early-booking code (Lite). Make a $25-off code with a minimum order of $450, a Start of November 23 and an End of December 4. Codes can be limited to dates and weekdays, not to a time of day. See limits, days and validity.
5. Take payment up front (Lite). Offices pay the full amount online by card through Stripe, into your own account. Sales tax shows as "Sales tax" at checkout.
6. Announce it (Lite). Schedule a pop-up banner from November 2 to December 20 and an announcement bar line (one line, up to 100 characters). For a poster, pick Christmas or New Year's Eve in the festival poster maker; for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or office lunches, pick General offer.
7. Deliver with your own drivers (Pro, US$39 a month). The rider app runs on iOS and Android, you assign each order with one tap, and the office gets a live tracking link. Compare costs in the own delivery cost calculator.

With a Branded App (US$99 a month), you can send regulars a push notification when Christmas Eve orders open. See pricing and pre-orders and table booking.

Pre-orders and table booking start on Lite, with a 7-day free trial (a card is needed to start; nothing is charged until the trial ends).

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More months: November · January · full restaurant marketing calendar.