How to get 11 days off this Christmas using just 4 annual leave days

Fancy an extra-long break in December?

Of course you do. There are only 87 days left until Christmas (yes, we're that sad) and there's a way you can make your time off feel extra long this year if you work Monday to Friday. If you're dreaming of clocking off work and not thinking about it for a solid week and a half, there are certain days you should take off in order to swing it. There are three bank holidays during Christmas week this year. Christmas Eve falls on a Monday this year, coming after the weekend and then before two bank holidays - Christmas Day and St Stephen's Day. New Year's Day, the following Tuesday, is also a bank holiday. That means that if you book off Christmas Eve and the two days after St Stephen's Day (Thursday 27 and Friday 28) and New Year's Eve (Monday 31), you'll end up with 11 days off together starting on December 21. If you wanted to go the whole hog and have a really long break, you could make it 16 days by using some of your 2019 annual leave days and simply booking off Wednesday 2 to Friday 4 January. Better book this in now before your colleagues cop on to it.