The holiday schedule email to send in November

One plain email in November prevents most of December's confusion and protects January. What goes in it, what to leave out, and when to send it.

Nov 3, 2026 · 4 min read

The most useful email you'll send all year is a boring one, sent in November, listing dates.

It heads off the questions that eat your December: "Is there class on the 22nd?", "Are you open Boxing Day?", "Do we still pay for January?" And it does something less obvious too. It's what stops the holiday break from becoming the moment a family quietly drifts away.

Why the break is risky

Two or three weeks without class breaks a habit. A family who's come every Tuesday since September suddenly doesn't, for most of a month, and the date you start again is fuzzy in their heads.

The ones who don't come back in January mostly didn't decide to leave. They lost the thread, and nothing arrived to pick it up.

It isn't only classes. A massage client who comes every three weeks misses their rhythm when you close for ten days. A community group that rents your hall on Thursdays needs to know which Thursdays it doesn't have. A salon's regulars need to know which Saturday is the last one before you close, before they all try to book it.

Send it in November, not December

By mid-December your email is one of forty. In November it's the only one asking a parent to note a date, and they still have room in their heads to do it.

The first half of November is right: early enough to be read, late enough that your dates are settled. If you're not sure of a date yet, decide it now. An email that says "we'll confirm the restart date soon" sends nothing useful.

What goes in it

Keep it to these, in this order:

1. The last class or day open before the break. The date, and a note if it's different for some classes or rooms.
2. Every closure, including the awkward ones: the stat holidays, the day the building's being cleaned, the one Saturday you're open when everyone expects you shut.
3. The first day back. In bold. It's the most important line in the email.
4. Anything running over the break, such as a holiday camp, a workshop or extra hours, with how to book it.
5. What happens with payments. The second most important line, and the one most often left out. If you bill monthly, say plainly whether December and January are charged as usual, and why. Silence here brings payment questions in exactly the week you're busiest.
6. One sentence about what's next. What the class will work on in January, or what's new. It turns a schedule into a reason to come back.

Here's one to adapt:

Subject: Holiday dates, and back Monday, January 4

Hi Sam,

Here are our holiday dates, so you can put them in your calendar now.

• Last classes: Saturday, December 19
• Closed: December 20 to January 3
• First classes back: Monday, January 4

Our holiday camp runs December 29 to 31, and has a few spots left.

December's tuition is billed as usual on the 1st, and covers the classes before the break. January's is billed on January 1.

In January, every class starts working towards the spring show. We can't wait.

What to leave out

Selling. Don't put a registration push, a gift idea and a schedule in one email. The schedule is what people need to act on, and anything else buries it. Send the rest separately, or not at all.

Policy reminders. Not now.

A long thank-you. One warm line is lovely. Four is a newsletter.

What a family owes you. If someone has a balance or a missing form, don't mention it here. Send them the same schedule as everyone else, and a separate message about the other thing. Mixing them means the schedule arrives with an awkward feeling attached, and that's exactly the family you most want back in January.

Make the date impossible to miss

Put the first day back in the subject line. "Holiday dates, and back Monday, January 4." A parent who reads nothing but the subject has the useful part.

Make it easy to put in a phone's calendar. A date in someone's calendar is worth ten in their inbox. A line like "Add January 4 to your calendar now" works surprisingly well on its own.

Say it out loud. In the last class before the break, tell the adults at pick-up. Have the desk say it too.

Put it where they'll look. On your website's front page and at the top of your families' home page, until you're back.

Send three lines two days before you reopen. Not the schedule again. Just:

We're back on Monday! Classes are at their usual times. See you then.

It's the message that does the most for January attendance, and it takes two minutes to write.

Then make your calendar agree with your email

The other half of the job is making sure nothing contradicts you. A class still on the online schedule for December 26 will get a booking, or a family turning up to a locked door. A rental, a private lesson or a party booked into a closed week means a phone call nobody wants to make in December.

Before you send the email, close every day you've listed, in whatever runs your bookings, and check what was already booked on them. Do it in that order: the calendar first, then the email, so the two can't disagree.

In Caletan's class registration software, a closure takes those days off the calendar: the classes on them are cancelled, nothing else can be booked there, and anything already booked is named for you to move first (closures). An announcement can then be pinned at the top of every family's home page and emailed to each of them once (announcements).