Christmas leave priority

The new starter is added to the group with the fewest staff members in. At my previous workplace there were 4 groups.

1: able to book the week leading up to Christmas, ending in Christmas Eve.
2: able to book the week starting Christmas Day & ending on New Year’s Eve.
3: able to book the week starting New Year’s Day.
4: no leave allowed over Christmas & New Year.

Obviously you moved along a year each year & you knew 4 years in advance what your entitlement would be so you could easily plan.

Maybe any month other than December. But in December they all know the dates- they have advent calendars counting them down!

This.
The best system I’ve seen is everyone putting in their requests and managers try to give everyone some of what they want, everyone getting a few days in a row off over the Christmas period, and rotating who has to work the specific holiday days each year.

(this was a large animal vets providing 24/7 cover)

It's a stupid and unfair policy. Children can enjoy celebrating with their families on another day, just as easily as adults without children can. Alternating so that everyone gets a chance to have Christmas off is the only right thing to do, while still allowing people to swap days if they so choose. (Though I dislike that it opens up the opportunity for pushy people to try to guilt colleagues into swapping, I do think someone should be allowed to kindly trade days if they don't mind, to let someone else spend the day with loved ones who are terminal, for instance, or visit family who are only in the area for a limited amount of time.)

What's classed as a a working day? Do you all work weekends as standard?

If not then you will all be breaking up on the 24th and going back on the 29th, it falls really nicely this year for those who don't work weekends.

I am a parent of two and I think that priority list is disgusting. It should be rota so each year someone different so everyone gets a turn.
I would be going to hr about that

Neither is being a parent, OP, though pregnancy and maternity count

Just as well really, as the consequences don't bear thinking about

Why don’t you write to your HR manager and say you are Christian, you must attend church on Christmas Day so can you have first dibs?

This is crazy logic and could be used to justify all certain policies that take things away from children.

If they're loved then they are still lucky even if they have a crap education, holes in their clothes, no access to dentistry etc. Depriving a kid of Christmas morning with their parents because an adult can't be flexible about celebrating with other adults in their family is selfish in my opinion. Keep in mind that most of us will be adults without children for the majority of our lives so it's not like there are two permanent different groups of people. Most of us will spend the vast majority of our lives in unprivileged group.

No write as though people are saying those with children should never be allowed to have Christmas off.

Well the parents accepted the job so, they too, should accept working over Christmas

Christmas looks different for everyone. We have no family nearby so Christmas will just be the 3 of us. Our child is a toddler so we could just change the day, it would make no difference to us. We don't watch the Queens speech or any other TV. It's just Father Christmas, food and a nice walk.

So I guess someone who is child free but has a larger family who get together would appreciate the day off far more than me.

When i worked for the NHS (years ago!) we were not allowed to book Christmas day off. If your shift pattern fell on that day then you were expected to work it. Then those who were off or the 0 hours people could offer to come in. I was young and poor at the time so worked over 12 hours on all the holiday days because the pay was double time.

My son does and remembers it as being magical despite me working because we made it work if i was on a late shift we would celebrate on the morning and vice a versa for the early and when i was on nights i stsyed up for the present opening
I also always tried to have boxing day off as its his birthday and nobody was that bothered about boxing day.

Why on earth are grandparents of 6 year old being prioritised over parents of 8 year olds? What if the grandchildren are visiting their other grandparents this year?

No, grandparent of a 7 year old is at the bottom.

It's under 7 parents/GPs, Over 7....

7 year olds... Aren't under or over 7.

As so many others have said, no, this is really not fair at all. The only fair way is a rota system so everyone has first refusal to take Christmas off in turn.

My good friend is single, no children, lives alone & her family is 2 hours away. Should she never be able to visit family at Christmas, ever?

In my current job there is only one other person I can’t clash with & we both have teenage & older children so it’s very easy to take turns. When I was working on a hospital ward there were always some who managed to have Christmas Day off every year. But t caused massive bad feeling.

Any chance of a list of these benefits please?

Well the younger ones wouldn't.

And the older ones are old enough to understand that mum and/or dad have to work to buy nice things and so that sometimes means having Christmas on a different day.

I think it should be on rotation.

100%. I work with numerous people who have small children and none of them would dream of suggesting this I think. Its not a protected characteristic, so there is nothing official you can challenge, but it is horrible for people with no children in those situations.

I have two kids, one is 9 and one is slightly older and both absolutely know when Christmas is and have known it for years. They countdown Christmas every year with advent calenders and through school activities. Your niece will be writing the date every day at school. She will be very aware how many days until Christmas from the 1st December.