Holiday Schedule Parenting Plan: Templates for Nunavut Families

Holiday scheduling is where most parenting plans fall apart. The weekly rotation might run smoothly for months, then Christmas arrives and nobody agreed on exact pickup times. In Nunavut, the stakes are higher — if one parent lives in a different community, a holiday handover involves regional flights that need booking weeks in advance, and a single blizzard can delay the exchange by days.

The Alternating Year Framework

The simplest approach divides holidays into two groups that alternate annually:

Group A (odd years with Parent 1): Christmas Eve through Boxing Day, Easter weekend, Nunavut Day (July 9), and the first half of summer break.

Group B (odd years with Parent 2): New Year's Eve through January 2, Thanksgiving weekend, National Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21), and the second half of summer break.

In even years, the groups swap. This ensures each parent gets every major holiday on a predictable rotation.

Summer Break Scheduling

Summer is the longest uninterrupted block and the most valuable parenting time for a non-primary parent in a different community. Two common approaches:

Equal split. Divide summer break into two halves. The child spends the first half (roughly late June through mid-July) with one parent and the second half (mid-July through late August) with the other. Specify the exact transition date — "July 15 at noon" eliminates ambiguity.

Extended block for the non-primary parent. If the child lives primarily with one parent during the school year, the other parent takes the entire summer. This is the standard approach for inter-community families in Nunavut because it minimizes the number of expensive regional flights and gives the child meaningful time in their second community.

Block Scheduling for Inter-Community Families

When parents live in different Nunavut hamlets — say one in Iqaluit and the other in Cambridge Bay — weekly or biweekly rotations are structurally impossible. There are no road networks; travel requires regional air, which is expensive, weather-dependent, and infrequent.

Block scheduling works instead: the child lives in one community during the school term and spends extended holiday blocks with the other parent. Your parenting plan for this arrangement needs to explicitly cover:

• Who books flights. Designate which parent is responsible for booking the child's regional air travel, and by what deadline (e.g., 30 days before the scheduled travel date).
• Who pays. Specify whether travel costs are split 50/50, paid by the non-residential parent, or allocated in proportion to income.
• Weather delays. If a flight is cancelled due to blizzards or mechanical issues, who absorbs the cost of unexpected hotel stays in transit hubs like Rankin Inlet? Spell this out — it prevents disputes in the moment.
• Unaccompanied minors. If the child is too young to fly alone, designate who serves as the travel escort and how escort costs are split.

Virtual Contact Between Visits

For block-scheduling families, the gap between physical visits can be months. A strong virtual contact schedule maintains the parent-child bond. Lock down the specifics: platform (FaceTime, phone call), frequency (daily or every other day), and time window (7-7:30 PM local time). Keep it consistent so the child can count on it.

Cultural and Land-Based Activities

Section 17(1) of the Children's Law Act requires the court to respect Inuit cultural values. If either parent takes the child on traditional hunting, fishing, or land-based cultural camps during their parenting time, include a provision in your plan. Specify notification requirements (how far in advance, what details to share) and acknowledge that these activities are a protected part of the child's upbringing.

For fillable scheduling templates — including the inter-community block schedule builder and holiday rotation planner — see the Nunavut Child Custody & Parenting Plan Guide.

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