Holiday Call Routing: Your 2025 Phone Checklist

Good holiday call routing means a customer who calls on the Friday after Thanksgiving hears that you are closed and when you reopen. Agree on your closed days, record one greeting, and enter each date in your number's holiday hours now. The phones switch over and back by themselves.

The holidays are close. Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 27, and this year Christmas and New Year's Day fall on Thursdays too. Plenty of offices will close the Friday after each one, which makes three long weekends in about five weeks.

Which Days Will You Be Closed?

Before you touch the phone system, settle the schedule with your team. For many offices this year it looks like this:

• Wednesday, November 26: close early
• Thursday and Friday, November 27 and 28: closed
• Wednesday, December 24: close early
• Thursday and Friday, December 25 and 26: closed
• Wednesday, December 31: close early
• Thursday and Friday, January 1 and 2: closed

Yours may differ. What matters is one list everyone agrees on, so your phones, website and email signature all say the same thing.

How Do You Set Holiday Hours on Your Business Phone?

In Telonium, each phone number has a weekly schedule for normal days and a list of holidays for the exceptions. Each holiday has a name, a first and last day, either all day or set hours, and where calls should go: voicemail with a holiday greeting, a recording, a call group or someone's cell phone. On those dates the weekly schedule steps aside. Calls follow the holiday during its hours and the number's "at all other times" route otherwise.

For this season, that means three entries for the closures, "Thanksgiving," "Christmas" and "New Year's," each two days, all day. Add the early closings as their own entries with set hours, such as noon to 5 p.m. When each holiday ends, the regular schedule comes back on its own, so nobody has to remember to switch anything on a hectic Wednesday afternoon.

Holidays are one-off dates. They do not repeat on their own, so add next year's dates when you plan next season. You can see how schedules fit with the rest of the system on our phone system features page.

What Should a Holiday Greeting Say?

Your regular after-hours greeting probably says "our office is closed." A holiday greeting is warmer, and it answers the first question every caller has: when will you be back?

"Thank you for calling. Our office is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday and will reopen Monday, December 1, at 9 a.m. Please leave a message and we will call you back. If this is an emergency, press 1."

A greeting is an audio file (MP3) you record on your phone or computer and upload. Record one for each closure so each can name its own reopening day. Last year we wrote a whole post of holiday voicemail greeting examples if you want more wording ideas.

Who Answers Urgent Calls Over the Holidays?

Some businesses can let every call go to voicemail over a holiday. A property manager, a home services company or a medical office may need someone reachable.

If that is you, choose who is on call for each closure. Point the holiday at an auto attendant (the "press 1 for…" menu) with an emergency option that rings the on-call person's cell through the Telonium app, while everyone else leaves a message. Rotate the duty so nobody carries the phone for all three weekends.

How Do You Work Through Holiday Voicemail?

With voicemail to email, every message arrives in your inbox as a recording. The on-call person can glance at messages without dialing in. When the office reopens, the team can split them up by forwarding emails instead of passing around a list of numbers.

Check that each voicemail box sends to an inbox someone reads. Shared boxes for sales or support should go to more than one person.

What Should Callers Hear on Hold?

December is busy for many businesses. If callers wait on hold, give them something useful to hear: your holiday hours, a seasonal offer or an order cutoff date. Take it out in January.

Holiday Call Routing Checklist

• Agree on your holiday hours with the team and write them down.
• Record and upload a holiday greeting that says when you reopen.
• Add each closure and early closing to every number's holiday hours.
• Decide who is on call, and add an emergency option if you need one.
• Check that voicemail goes to email for every shared box.
• Update hold messages, and set a reminder to change them back.
• Post the same hours on your website and social pages.
• Look over the holiday list once to check the dates.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I Have to Change Things by Hand on Each Holiday?

No. Enter each holiday ahead of time with its dates and hours, and it switches on and off by itself. The only yearly job is adding the new year's dates.

How Many Holidays Can One Number Have?

Up to 30, each up to 31 days long. Past holidays are marked in the list, so it is easy to see what is still coming.

Where Do I Get Help Setting This Up?

Our support team is here Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern, at 404-566-8888. Have a good holiday season.