Quick answer
When is New Year's Eve 2020?
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Relative to today: 1955 days ago.
New Year's Eve 2020 is Thursday, December 31, 2020. New Year's Eve is observed on December 31, so the date is fixed while the weekday changes each year. Check local schedules for schools, events, employers, and travel plans.
Not a U.S. federal public holiday. See all U.S. public holidays for a full 2020 list.
Thursday, December 31, 2020
New Year's Eve is observed on December 31, so the date is fixed while the weekday changes each year.
Not a U.S. federal public holiday
New Year's Eve is widely observed in the United States, but it is not a standard U.S. federal public holiday.
What New Year's Eve means in the United States
New Year's Eve is part of the U.S. calendar vocabulary people search for by year because the practical question is not only the name of the day, but the exact weekday and date. Use the date line above as the answer first: it is the part that matters for travel, school schedules, family plans, payroll cutoffs, event promotion, and calendar subscriptions.
For U.S. planning, always separate three ideas: the calendar date, the federal holiday status, and the local closure pattern. A date can be culturally important without being a federal public holiday, and a federal holiday can still have exceptions for private employers, hospitals, retail, transportation, and emergency services. That is why this page links the exact date to month and year calendar views instead of treating the name alone as enough.
If you are using this page for work, compare the date against your employer handbook, school district calendar, bank holiday list, carrier service alerts, or event venue schedule. If you are using it for family planning, add the date to a subscribed calendar rather than typing it once into a note, because year-specific pages are easiest to forget when the next year rolls around.
At a glance
- Use the first date line as the direct answer for year-specific searches.
- Check federal status separately from school, bank, employer, and local closures.
- Open the related month calendar when the surrounding week matters.
- Use the multi-year table for travel, campaigns, and recurring events.
Practical planning
- Confirm the date against any institution that can set its own closure calendar.
- For travel or shipping, check cutoff dates around the holiday week, not only the day itself.
- If the day affects a campaign or event, include both the weekday and the month-day in copy.
- Subscribe or print the matching calendar if you need the date beyond a one-time lookup.
How 2020 compares to 2019
In 2019, the date was Tuesday, December 31, 2019. In 2020, the date is Thursday, December 31, 2020. The month and day stay the same, but the weekday changes as the calendar advances. The gap is 366 day(s) later year over year, which reflects whether the prior year included a leap day. Use the weekday, not only the fixed date, when you compare school schedules, shipping cutoffs, event hours, or travel plans.
Last year: Tuesday, December 31, 2019 · This page: Thursday, December 31, 2020
Other U.S. observances in December 2020
Same month, different rules—useful when you are planning December travel or event spacing.
- Christmas Eve — Thursday, December 24, 2020
- Christmas Day — Friday, December 25, 2020
Weekends, time off, and scheduling
Long weekends, substitute days, and school make-up days vary. Use the exact date with your employer, school, or state calendar when planning travel and time off.
When New Year's Eve falls (multi-year)
Exact calendar dates and weekdays—useful for new year's eve 2024–2027 search intent.
| Year | Date | Weekday |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Dec 31 | Monday |
| 2019 | Dec 31 | Tuesday |
| 2020 this page | Dec 31 | Thursday |
| 2021 | Dec 31 | Friday |
| 2022 | Dec 31 | Saturday |
| 2023 | Dec 31 | Sunday |
| 2024 | Dec 31 | Tuesday |
| 2025 | Dec 31 | Wednesday |
| 2026 | Dec 31 | Thursday |
| 2027 | Dec 31 | Friday |
Questions about New Year's Eve 2020
When is New Year's Eve 2020, exactly?
New Year's Eve in 2020 is Thursday, December 31, 2020 (use your local time zone for same-day events). The date on the calendar is fixed by the U.S. rule in our guide, not a guess. If you need a single ISO-style line for travel systems, the date is 2020-12-31.
Why does New Year's Eve land on that Thursday in 2020?
New Year's Eve is observed on December 31, so the date is fixed while the weekday changes each year. For fixed-date observances, the weekday is the part that changes from year to year. That weekday is often what determines school events, shipping deadlines, restaurant demand, travel timing, or whether a weekend observed closure applies.
How does the 2020 date compare to 2019?
In 2019, the date was Tuesday, December 31, 2019. In 2020, the date is Thursday, December 31, 2020. The month and day stay the same, but the weekday changes as the calendar advances. The gap is 366 day(s) later year over year, which reflects whether the prior year included a leap day. Use the weekday, not only the fixed date, when you compare school schedules, shipping cutoffs, event hours, or travel plans.
Is New Year's Eve 2020 a U.S. federal public holiday, and do banks and post offices close?
This date is not a universal “everyone is off work” U.S. federal public holiday in the same way as, for example, New Year’s Day. New Year's Eve is widely observed in the United States, but it is not a standard U.S. federal public holiday. If you are checking “open or closed” for a specific place, use that organization’s own holiday list rather than a generic U.S. label alone.
What about New Year's Eve in 2021—and how should I use the multi-year table?
In 2021, New Year's Eve is Friday, December 31, 2021. The table on this page is meant for multi-year search intent: you can line up several years at once to see when the same observance will fall near a trip, a budget cycle, or a school year boundary. For subscription calendars, also open the year view in AnyCalendar to catch adjacent holidays.
Where can I see this day on a full U.S. holiday list and in my own calendar?
The United States public-holiday list for 2020 (with long-weekend notes) is on anycalendar.org/holidays/us. You can also open the december 2020 month view, the full 2020 year view, and use the subscribe and print tools on AnyCalendar to move these dates into Google, Apple, Outlook, or a PDF you can print.