Holiday Parenting Schedule for the ACT: Christmas, School Holidays, and Changeover Examples
Holiday Parenting Schedule for the ACT: Christmas, School Holidays, and Changeover Examples
The weekly schedule is the part most parents work out first. The holidays are where agreements fall apart. Every year brings the same arguments — who gets Christmas morning, how school holiday weeks are divided, what happens on Canberra Day — because the original plan was too vague to answer these questions clearly.
Structuring School Holiday Divisions
ACT school terms follow the standard four-term Australian calendar, giving roughly 12 weeks of school holidays per year. The most common approach is to divide each holiday block equally between parents, with the first half alternating annually.
Example clause: "During the Term 4/Term 1 summer holiday, the child will spend the first half (from the last day of school until 5:00 PM on [midpoint date]) with Parent A in even-numbered years and Parent B in odd-numbered years. The second half runs from the midpoint until the day before school resumes."
Avoid writing "holidays will be shared equally." That phrase creates an annual argument about which half each parent gets. Specify the direction of alternation and the exact midpoint.
Christmas and New Year
Christmas is the highest-conflict holiday in family law. Two approaches work:
Split the day. "The child will be with Parent A from 9:00 AM until 2:00 PM on Christmas Day, and with Parent B from 2:00 PM Christmas Day until 10:00 AM on December 26. This arrangement alternates annually."
Alternate the entire block. "In even-numbered years, the child will spend December 24 at 4:00 PM through December 26 at 10:00 AM with Parent A. In odd-numbered years, the same period applies to Parent B."
Splitting the day works for parents who live close together and can manage a midday changeover without tension. Alternating the full Christmas block works better when parents live further apart or when transitions on Christmas Day itself would be stressful for the child.
New Year's Eve follows the same logic — either alternate it or include it as part of whichever parent has the second half of the summer holiday block.
Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Birthdays
Easter: Alternate the full Easter long weekend (Good Friday through Easter Monday) annually. Specify pickup and dropoff times — "Parent A collects the child at 4:00 PM on Thursday before Good Friday and returns them at 6:00 PM on Easter Monday."
Mother's Day and Father's Day: These override the regular schedule. The child spends the day with the relevant parent regardless of whose regular weekend it is. Specify the time window — "from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM" prevents arguments about overnight stays.
Child's birthday: Alternate annually, or split the day. Many parents find that splitting works well here — one parent hosts the morning or the party, the other has dinner and bedtime.
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ACT-Specific Public Holidays
Canberra Day (second Monday in March) and Reconciliation Day (27 May, or the following Monday if it falls on a weekend) are ACT-specific public holidays that create long weekends. If your plan does not address them specifically, they default to whoever has the regular schedule that week — which may feel unfair if one parent consistently gets the long weekends.
The simplest fix: alternate ACT-specific public holiday long weekends annually, independent of the regular weekly schedule.
Changeover Logistics
Every changeover clause should specify three things: the location, the time, and who is responsible for transport.
School-based changeovers reduce face-to-face contact between parents and are strongly recommended when there is any history of conflict. Parent A drops the child at school on Friday morning; Parent B collects them after school. The school building acts as a neutral buffer.
Public location changeovers work when school is not in session. Name the specific place — "the main entrance of [shopping centre]" — rather than "a mutually agreed location."
Transport responsibility: State who drives. "Parent B is responsible for collecting the child at the start of their care time and returning the child at the end" removes the "whose turn is it" argument.
The ACT Child Custody & Parenting Plan Guide includes a holiday schedule planner with fillable templates for every scenario above, designed for the ACT school calendar.
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