Decide Whether Holidays Override the Regular Schedule

The first design choice: does a holiday replace whatever the regular rotation would have given that parent, or does it just add on top of it? Plans that don’t say this explicitly are a common source of disputes the following year.

Common Approaches to Major Holidays

Each with real tradeoffs:

Alternating years — each parent gets a given holiday in alternating years. Simple to remember, but a parent misses that specific holiday every other year.
Splitting the day — the child spends part of the actual day with each parent. Works better for holidays with flexible timing.
Fixed assignment — a specific holiday always goes to the same parent, balanced by giving other holidays to the other parent every year.

School Breaks Need Their Own Structure

Separate from single-day holidays — winter break, spring break, and summer often get divided differently than the regular week.

Vacation Time Usually Needs Advance Notice Rules

A workable plan specifies how much notice a parent must give before taking vacation time with the child, whether travel destinations need to be shared, and how competing requests for the same dates get resolved.

Keep Exchange Logistics Attached to the Schedule, Not Assumed

Where exchanges happen, who provides transportation, and what happens if a flight or school event changes the timing are worth spelling out for holiday and vacation periods specifically.

What This Means for Mediation

This is usually one of the more concrete, solvable parts of a parenting plan — most families land on a workable structure once the underlying question is settled early.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Sun State Mediator does not draft parenting-plan language.

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