Conveyancers close, banks shut for bank holidays, removers run skeleton diaries. Here is how to plan a successful festive-period move.
The festive period — from about December 22nd through to January 5th — is the quietest two weeks of the year in the UK removals industry. Most reputable firms run a skeleton service, conveyancers close their offices, banks close for the bank holidays, and the property market essentially pauses. For customers committed to a Christmas-or-New-Year completion, this guide covers what we’ve learned about making it work.
It’s perfectly possible to move successfully over this period — we do a handful of festive moves every year — but the variables shift. Booking lead times, deposit timing, chain availability and crew rates all behave differently. The detail below walks through each consideration so you arrive at the right decision for your situation.
The most common reason is the conveyancing calendar. UK property completions often cluster around the December bank-holiday cut-off because solicitors push to clear cases before the office closure. The result: a wave of late-December completions where the buyer and seller are committed but the wider market has gone quiet.
The second common reason is tax-year planning. December 31st is the cut-off for certain reliefs and capital-gains positions; a small percentage of moves are scheduled to complete just before year-end for tax purposes. The third reason is simply that the buyer or seller has personal flexibility (between jobs, sabbatical, retirement) and prefers the quieter period for the move itself.
None of these reasons are wrong, but each comes with the festive-period logistics overlay. Before committing to a Christmas completion, talk to your conveyancer about the office schedule and to us at survey stage about our diary availability. The 2026 cost guide covers the wider pricing picture.
Banks close on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day. They also close any “substitute” bank-holiday days when 25 December or 1 January falls on a weekend. The practical effect on a property completion: funds cannot transfer on bank-holiday days. A “completion” scheduled for a closed-bank day is impossible — the chain has to complete the working day before or after.
The working days available for completion over the festive period are typically December 22nd, 23rd, 24th (often a half-day for solicitors) and then December 29th, 30th, 31st (often closed too) and January 2nd, 3rd. The actual workable days vary year-to-year based on which day of the week the bank holidays fall.
What this means for the customer: confirm with your conveyancer at least four weeks ahead which specific date the completion will land on. Don’t book the removal until that date is confirmed. We’ll provisionally hold a slot on a likely date but the final booking happens once the conveyancer confirms. See the how-to-prepare guide for the full 8-week run-up.
Most reputable Sussex removers (including us) run a reduced diary between December 22nd and January 5th. Crews take Christmas leave; the depot is staffed on a skeleton basis; the major moves happen on December 22nd–23rd or January 5th onwards. The mid-period (December 27th–January 3rd) is genuinely quiet.
If your completion date falls in the mid-period, book early — the few available crews fill up fast. December moves get booked from October onwards. January 5th onwards is similar — the post-holiday surge means anyone with a January completion is competing for slots that filled up before Christmas.
Rates over the festive period are usually the same as standard winter rates — we don’t add a holiday surcharge for ordinary working days. Bank-holiday day work itself (rare, but possible) is charged at a premium because the crew is on holiday-pay rates. Talk to us about the specific date and we’ll quote transparently. The questions-to-ask guide covers what to confirm in any quote.
A surprising number of festive-period customers need storage between completions. The pattern: the December completion goes ahead on the 22nd or 23rd, the load goes into our Lower Dicker depot, and we redeliver in the first week of January when the new property completes.
The depot is staffed throughout the festive period for security and minor operations, but bulk in-and-out activity pauses between December 24th and January 2nd. If your storage needs are short (a week or two) this is fine — the contents sit safely in the climate-stable strong-room and are ready for redelivery as soon as the new completion lands.
Insurance, security and access arrangements continue as normal. Our depot has 24/7 CCTV and alarm monitoring throughout the festive period; the relevant details are in the terms and insurance page. The short-vs-long-term storage guide covers the contract terms.
The festive period is when the household calendar is busiest with family commitments. School holidays, work parties, family gatherings, religious observances. Layering a house move on top is genuinely demanding. Make sure the family logistics — where the children stay, who hosts the pet, what the Christmas-dinner plan looks like — are decided well ahead.
Travel patterns over the festive period are also less predictable. Train strikes, road works, family visits from far away. If guests are arriving on the day of the move, they don’t. Reschedule them for the next day. The move itself plus visiting guests on the same day is a recipe for missed pickups and tired arguments.
For the move day itself, the rule is the same as any season: keep children somewhere else if possible, plan the pet’s day separately (see moving with pets), have a clear “first night” plan for food and bedtime. The survival kit guide applies year-round.
If your move completed on December 22nd–23rd, you’re probably hosting Christmas in the new house within 48 hours. This sounds chaotic but is actually manageable: prioritise the kitchen (so cooking is possible) and the bedrooms (so guests have somewhere to sleep), leave everything else for January.
The packing-order guide covers the priority order; for Christmas-arrival, the additional priority is the dining table and chairs (or a workable substitute) and the basic Christmas Day cooking kit. If you have a pre-arranged Christmas-decoration set, that’s the next priority — a Christmas tree up by Christmas Eve is a meaningful psychological win.
For New Year completions, the priority shifts. New Year completions typically have a quieter follow-up window than Christmas ones — you have a fortnight of January to unpack at a sensible pace. Use it. The temptation to power through the unpack in the first week leaves everyone exhausted by mid-January.
We've been a family-run Sussex remover since 1982 — the same name on the lorry as the name on the paperwork. Mark personally surveys the high-value and overseas moves; our crews are directly employed (not casual day labour) and trained at our own staff training centre, one of only a handful of UK removers with that facility on site.
Standard inclusions on every full removal: pad-wrap protection for every freestanding piece of furniture, removal-grade cartons, a written and itemised fixed-price quote with no surprises on the day, and the British Association of Removers' Advance Payment Guarantee protecting every deposit. The result, over forty years and tens of thousands of moves, is a 4.9/5 review average across 120+ independent Google reviews.
Booking the survey takes ten minutes. Whether it's a one-bedroom flat across Eastbourne or a country house to overseas, the process is the same: in-home or video survey, written quote within 48 hours, deposit-protected booking, and a calm move day.
Free in-home or video survey, written fixed-price quote, BAR-protected deposit. Sussex’s family-run remover since 1982.
The honest answer to “should we move at Christmas?” depends almost entirely on the property chain. If completion timing forces it, the move is genuinely doable with the right planning. If you have flexibility, November or January-onwards is easier on the family, the conveyancer and the removal diary. Talk to us at survey and we’ll give an honest view of what works for your situation.
If you do go ahead with a festive move, the single most useful thing is to plan the Christmas Day arrangements first and the move logistics second. Pre-book a takeaway near the new property, set a low bar for “unpacked enough”, and accept that the first Christmas in the new place may not look like a magazine spread. The customers who manage their expectations are consistently the ones who report the calmest festive moves the following year.
No. Banks don't transfer funds on closed days. Confirm the exact completion date with your conveyancer at least four weeks ahead; the workable festive-period days vary year-to-year.
Standard winter rates for ordinary working days. Bank-holiday day work (rare) carries a premium because the crew is on holiday-pay rates. We quote transparently.
Yes — December moves book up from October. The few crews available between December 22nd and January 5th fill up fast.
Yes — our depot strong-rooms are staffed throughout the festive period for security. Bulk in-and-out pauses between Christmas Eve and January 2nd, but short-term storage works fine.
If the property chain dictates the date, you don't have a choice. If you have flexibility, the November or January-onwards periods are easier. Talk to us at survey and we'll give you an honest view.