Time & date
Christmas Countdown
See how many days, hours, minutes and seconds — and how many sleeps — are left until Christmas, counted in your own time zone.
Christmas
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Everything runs in your browser using your device’s clock and time zone.
Works in your browser. No account needed.
Frequently asked questions
How is the number of days until Christmas worked out?
The countdown runs to midnight at the start of December 25 in your device’s time zone, using your device’s clock. The days figure is whole days left, and the hours, minutes and seconds are what remains after that, so at midnight on December 24 it reads exactly 1 day, 00:00:00. Because it reads your clock and time zone, a friend in another country sees their own local countdown.
What does “sleeps until Christmas” mean?
It is the number of nights left before Christmas morning — the way children count. It equals the number of calendar days from today to December 25, so on Christmas Eve there is 1 more sleep, and on Christmas Day there are none. Outside the stroke of midnight it is one more than the days on the clock: at 9 pm on December 23 there are 2 sleeps left, but 1 day and 3 hours.
When does Hanukkah start?
Hanukkah begins at nightfall on the evening before 25 Kislev in the Hebrew calendar, so its Gregorian date moves each year. The first candle is lit on the evening of December 4 in 2026, December 24 in 2027, December 12 in 2028, December 1 in 2029 and December 20 in 2030. The countdown runs to the start of that day, and for the eight days of the festival the page shows which night it is.
What happens on Christmas Day, and after it?
From midnight on December 25 the page shows a Merry Christmas message instead of zeros, all day long. At midnight on December 26 it rolls over and starts counting down to next Christmas. The other holidays work the same way, so New Year’s Day shows its greeting on January 1 and then counts to the following year.
Does daylight saving time throw the countdown off?
No. The countdown follows the wall clock in your time zone rather than a fixed number of hours, so at any midnight it shows a whole number of days, even though a clock change in the autumn adds an hour in between. On the night the clocks go back or forward, the hours figure jumps by an hour at the same moment your clock does.
Can I turn off the snow in full-screen mode?
Yes. Press the Snow button or the S key to toggle it. If your device is set to reduce motion, snowfall stays off automatically and the countdown is shown on a still background. Full screen uses your browser’s fullscreen mode where it is allowed; on phones that don’t support it, the countdown still fills the page.
About this tool
This Christmas countdown answers the question every December brings: how many days until Christmas? It shows a live clock of the days, hours, minutes and seconds left until midnight on December 25, together with the number of sleeps — the nights to go before Christmas morning. The date it counts to is written underneath with its weekday, so you can see at a glance that Christmas 2026 falls on a Friday.
Five other dates are one tap away. Christmas Eve counts to December 24, New Year to January 1, Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November in the US, and Halloween to October 31. Hanukkah counts to the day of the first candle, which moves every year with the Hebrew calendar; the dates are built in and match the published calendar, and for the eight days of the festival the page tells you which night it is. The At a glance list ranks all six by how soon they arrive.
Full screen / TV mode turns the page into a large, high-contrast display for a living-room TV, a school projector or an office screen, with gentle snowfall that you can switch off. Snow never runs when your system asks for reduced motion. Copy link shares the countdown you are looking at, so a link to the Hanukkah tab opens on Hanukkah for everyone who receives it.
Everything is calculated in your browser from your own clock and time zone; nothing is sent to a server. The countdown follows local wall-clock time, so it stays in step through daylight-saving changes, shows a holiday greeting on the day itself, and rolls on to next year’s date the moment the day is over — you can leave it open for weeks and it will keep counting.