Christmas Leave: What Employers Need to Know to Manage the Year-End Holidays

December 25 is a so-called “ordinary” public holiday: unless a more favourable collective bargaining provision or established practice (usage) applies, you are not required to grant it as a day off or to pay it at a premium. No statutory text imposes a specific “Christmas leave”: year-end rest derives either from public holidays (Article L.3133-1 of the French Labour Code) or from paid leave requested by the employee or imposed by you as part of a company closure. This article sets out the legal and operational framework so you can manage this period without litigation risk.

December 25: A Public Holiday, But Not Necessarily a Day Off

Christmas appears on the list of eleven statutory public holidays set out in Article L.3133-1 of the French Labour Code. Contrary to a widespread belief, only May 1 is compulsorily a paid day off. For all other public holidays, including December 25, the day off is not automatic: it depends on your collective bargaining agreement, a company-level agreement or an established practice (usage).

In practice, two situations arise:

Your collective bargaining agreement or an established practice provides that December 25 is a day off: the employee does not work and retains their pay, subject to the conditions set out in Article L.3133-3 (a public holiday off cannot result in a loss of pay for employees with at least three months’ length of service).
No provision requires the day off: you may ask the employee to work on December 25. In that case, no statutory premium is due, unless a more favourable collective bargaining provision applies.

Alsace-Moselle point of attention: in the departments of Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin and Moselle, December 25 AND December 26 (Saint Stephen’s Day) are public holidays that must compulsorily be given as days off under local law (Articles L.3134-1 et seq. of the French Labour Code). If your company employs staff in these territories, you must strictly comply with this regime, including for secondary establishments.

Company Closure Between Christmas and New Year

Many mid-sized companies choose to close between December 25 and January 1. This closure is not “free time off”: it is charged against employees’ paid leave.

Two implementation methods:

1. Closure imposed by the employer. You may set leave dates and impose a closure, in compliance with the applicable statutory rules: consultation of the Social and Economic Committee (comité social et économique, or CSE) and, absent a collective agreement, compliance with notice periods. The leave period must be communicated at least one month before departure, save in exceptional circumstances.

2. Leave requested at the employee’s initiative. You retain the power to accept or refuse requests based on operational requirements, while respecting equal treatment.

Beware of split-leave entitlements (fractionnement). When you require leave to be taken outside the statutory period (May 1 – October 31), the employee may become entitled to additional split-leave days (jours de fractionnement), unless a waiver is provided for by an agreement or by the collective bargaining agreement. An employee whom you require to take five days in December may thus acquire one or two additional days. Anticipate this cost by securing a waiver clause in your company-level agreement.

Employee With Insufficient Accrued Leave

What should you do if an employee does not have enough accrued days to cover the closure? You cannot compel them to take leave they have not accrued. Several solutions are available to you:

Taking leave in advance, with the employee’s consent.
Recourse to short-time working (activité partielle), if the statutory conditions are met and after applying to the authorities.
Unpaid leave (congé sans solde): the employee is then not paid for the uncovered days. This period suspends the contract but generates neither pay nor contributions, which affects the payslip.

Payroll management of these situations is a technical point: the treatment of unworked days, the interaction with public holidays falling within the period and the calculation of paid-leave allowances must be mastered in order to avoid any URSSAF reassessment or employee claim.

Working on December 25 and Compensatory Rest

If your business requires continuity (healthcare, hospitality and catering, retail, process industries), working on December 25 is possible, except for young workers under 18, whose employment on public holidays is in principle prohibited (Article L.3164-6 of the French Labour Code), subject to sector-specific exemptions.

Systematically check:

what your collective bargaining agreement provides regarding premiums or compensatory rest for working on a public holiday;
compliance with the weekly rest of 24 consecutive hours, on top of the daily rest of 11 hours;
any company-level agreement setting out compensation.

Absent a collective bargaining provision, no premium is legally required for working on an ordinary public holiday — but practice and employer attractiveness often justify negotiated compensation.

Gifts and gift vouchers given to employees by the CSE — or by you where there is no CSE — benefit from an URSSAF tolerance: below an annual ceiling per employee and per event (Christmas being an accepted event), they are exempt from social security contributions. Beyond that, they constitute a benefit subject to contributions.

The year-end bonus, on the other hand, is a component of remuneration: it is fully subject to social security contributions and must appear on the payslip. If it results from an established practice (usage), its removal requires a formalised termination procedure (individual notice to employees, information of the CSE, compliance with a sufficient notice period). DAIRIA Avocats secures these terminations of established practices, a frequent source of employment-tribunal litigation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are we required to grant December 25 as a day off?

No, except in Alsace-Moselle where local law imposes it. Elsewhere, whether December 25 is a day off depends on your collective bargaining agreement, a company-level agreement or an established practice. Failing this, you may ask the employee to work, with no legally mandatory premium (Article L.3133-3 of the French Labour Code).

Can we require employees to take leave during the Christmas closure?

Yes. You may set a closure period and require paid leave to be taken, provided you consult the CSE and comply with notice periods. Allow at least one month’s notice before the actual departure.

Does the year-end closure give rise to split-leave entitlements?

Yes, potentially. Leave imposed outside the period from May 1 to October 31 may generate additional split-leave days, unless a waiver is provided for by a collective agreement or by the collective bargaining agreement. A well-drafted waiver clause neutralises this cost.

Must an employee without sufficient leave be paid during the closure?

Not automatically. If they have not accrued enough days, you may use leave taken in advance with their consent, short-time working if the conditions are met, or unpaid leave. In the latter case, the uncovered days are neither paid nor subject to contributions.

Are Christmas gifts and gift vouchers subject to contributions?

Below the annual ceiling tolerated by URSSAF, gift vouchers and gifts linked to the Christmas event are exempt from social security contributions. Beyond that threshold, they become a benefit subject to contributions and must be processed in payroll.

Secure Your Year-End Management

The Christmas period concentrates several risks: challenges to imposed leave, unanticipated split-leave days, payroll errors on public holidays, the social security regime for bonuses and gifts, and Alsace-Moselle specificities. DAIRIA Avocats assists HR directors and mid-sized-company executives in drafting closure agreements, securing split-leave waiver clauses, terminating established practices and auditing public-holiday payroll. We act upstream to avoid litigation and guarantee you provable compliance. Contact us to prepare for your year-end holidays with peace of mind.