US President Donald Trump has once again declared Christmas Eve a holiday for most federal workers in an executive order signed on Friday.
“All executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Thursday, 24 December 2020, the day before Christmas Day,” the order reads.
But not all federal employees will get the day off. Departmental heads will have the authority to decide if “certain offices and installations of their organisations, or parts thereof, must remain open,” while others will have to work for “reasons of national security, defense, or other public need”.
The order means Federal staff will have a four-day weekend, with Christmas Day falling on a Friday this year.
Trump had been expected to follow former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, who gave workers a half-day off on the Thursday when Christmas fell on a Friday, but he went one (or half) better.
Last year Trump signed a similar order when Christmas Eve was a Tuesday. There are normally ten federal holidays in the US calendar: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King’s birthday, Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.