The quickest way to get a 2027 calendar with holidays is to copy the free Big Year 2027 Google Sheet, type your holiday dates into its SETTINGS tab, and let them highlight on a one-page view of the year. For US federal holidays, the 2027 days off are Jan 1, Jan 18, Feb 15, May 31, Jun 18, Jul 5, Sep 6, Oct 11, Nov 11, Nov 25 and Dec 24.
The trouble with most printed calendars is that they show somebody else's holidays. You get Flag Day and Groundhog Day, but not your kid's spring break or the Friday your office closes. This post walks through building a calendar with the holidays that actually change your week, in layers, so nothing important gets missed.
TL;DR
- You'll end up with one 2027 page showing federal, school, company and family dates highlighted together.
- Big Year ships with no holidays loaded, so the calendar is only as complete as the list you type in.
- The most common mistake is entering the actual holiday date when your day off is the observed one.
Who this is for
- Dental office manager: You can block out school holidays next to your own closure days and plan staffing around both.
- Elementary school teacher: Your district breaks and the federal Mondays end up on the same page as your units.
- HR manager: One sheet becomes the company holiday calendar everyone can open.
- Freelance designer: You can see which client offices are closed before promising a delivery date.
- Stay-at-home parent: Every school day off, birthday and family trip is visible a year ahead.
Step 1: Decide which layers you need
Before typing anything, write down which kinds of holidays affect you. Most people need two or three of these:
- Federal: the 11 US federal holidays, using observed dates.
- State or local: days your state, city or county closes offices.
- School: breaks, teacher work days and early dismissals from your district or college.
- Company: your employer's closures, like the day after Thanksgiving.
- Family: birthdays, anniversaries and religious holidays you observe.
A dental office might use federal plus school, because school breaks can change who books appointments. A family with two kids in different schools needs both school calendars.
Step 2: Collect the dates from the source
Get each layer from the people who set it, not from a random list. For federal dates, OPM publishes the official table. For school breaks, use your district's published calendar. For company days, ask HR for the 2027 list.
Two 2027 quirks to catch while you collect: Juneteenth, Independence Day and Christmas all land on weekends, so the days off are June 18, July 5 and December 24. And New Year's Day 2028 is a Saturday, so federal workers are expected to get Friday December 31, 2027 off.
Step 3: Enter them in Big Year's SETTINGS tab
- Copy Big Year 2027 into your Google Drive. It's free.
- Open the SETTINGS tab. Check the year is 2027.
- Type each holiday date into the left column, one per row. The column next to it is a formula that places each date in the year you picked, so leave that one alone.
- Go to the BIG tab. Every date you entered is now highlighted, and weekends are lightly shaded, all 12 months on one page.
If you'd rather start with the federal list already typed out, the 2027 holidays page has it ready to copy.
Step 4: Add the days that aren't days off
Not everything belongs in SETTINGS. I keep SETTINGS for days I'm actually off (or the kids are), so the highlights mean something. Observances like Valentine's Day (Sunday February 14), Mother's Day (Sunday May 9) or Halloween (Sunday October 31) go straight into the day cells on BIG as text.
That way, a highlight means "no school or no work," and a note means "remember this." Two kinds of marks, easy to tell apart from across the room.
Step 5: Share it or print it
The finished calendar is a normal Google Sheet, so share it with your team or family the same way you'd share any sheet. For paper, the free DOWNLOAD tab makes a landscape PDF fit to one page, in Letter, A4, Tabloid or A3, with your holidays included.
If you want the same holidays in a different layout, Big Year Premium ($10 for 10 templates) reads the same SETTINGS list. The SCHOOL tab runs on a custom academic year like July to June, and PILLAR puts a mini month grid above a vertical list of days for notes. Enter your holidays once and they highlight on every layout.
Common pitfalls
- Typing names instead of dates in SETTINGS. The holiday column wants a date. Put the name in the day cell on BIG if you want it labeled.
- Using July 4 instead of July 5. Enter the day you're off, which in 2027 is the Monday.
- Guessing school dates. Districts set their own breaks. Wait for the published calendar instead of copying last year's.
- Highlighting everything. If every observance is highlighted, you can't see your real days off. Keep highlights for closures.
FAQ
Does Big Year come with holidays already filled in?
No. It ships blank on purpose so it works in any country, district or company. You add your own dates in SETTINGS.
Can I add holidays for more than one country?
Yes. SETTINGS is just a list of dates, so you can mix US federal days, UK bank holidays and family dates in the same list.
Will my holidays show up when I print?
Yes. The PDF from the DOWNLOAD tab includes your notes and highlighted holidays.
Is there a 2027 calendar with holidays for Excel?
Big Year has an Excel (.xlsx) download on the DOWNLOAD tab, though Google Sheets is the recommended way to use it.
Planning next year? Get the Big Year, a free 2027 calendar in Google Sheets.
