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Thanksgiving and Winter Break Custody: Setting the Schedule Before the Holiday Rush
By Fritznie Jarbath, Esq., Founding Partner
This year (2026), Thanksgiving break covers the whole week of November 23, and winter break is right behind it. If you're co-parenting anywhere in Miami or South Florida, that means two of the longest school breaks of the year are coming up back to back. That's a lot of time to divide between two homes, and a lot of room for two parents to read the same plan in two different ways.
The holiday disputes that land on our desks in December rarely start in December. They start in November, when one parent assumes Thanksgiving is theirs this year, the other parent assumes the same thing, and nobody opens the parenting plan to check. By the time someone does, flights are booked and a simple scheduling question has become a standoff.
It helps to think about the holidays the way a relay team thinks about the handoff. The running is rarely the problem. Relays are won and lost in the exchange zone, where both runners need to know exactly where the baton changes hands and when. Holiday timesharing works the same way: most parents agree that their children should see both sides of the family, and the trouble lives in the handoffs. What time on Wednesday? Whose driveway? Who wakes up with the kids on Christmas morning?
November is early enough to settle every one of those questions, and the first step takes about ten minutes.
Start With What Your Parenting Plan Already Says
Florida law requires every parenting plan to include a time-sharing schedule that spells out the time your child spends with each parent. That requirement comes from Florida Statute 61.13, and timesharing is simply the legal word for where your child is and when. (Who makes major decisions is a separate issue, covered in our post on shared and sole parental responsibility.) What the statute does not do is hand out holidays. There is no Florida rule that gives mothers Thanksgiving or fathers Christmas morning. Your holidays are whatever your plan says they are.
Many Florida plans are built on the Florida Supreme Court's standard parenting plan form, so the holiday section often follows a familiar pattern. Look for three things:
A holiday table. Thanksgiving is usually listed with a parent assigned in even years, odd years, or every year, along with a begin and end time. If your plan uses even and odd years, 2026 is an even year, so look for the name in that column.
A winter break clause. Winter break is normally its own section, separate from individual holidays like Christmas Day, often stating when the break begins (commonly at the end of the last day of classes) and how the days are divided.
A priority clause. The standard form says the holiday schedule takes priority over the regular weekday, weekend, and summer schedule. If yours does too, the usual weekend rotation steps aside for the holidays.
If a holiday isn't assigned to anyone, the standard form keeps the children with whichever parent has them under the regular schedule. Customized plans can say otherwise, so read your own wording.
Does "Thanksgiving" Mean Thursday or the Whole Week?
Here's the part that catches people off guard. In South Florida, schools are typically closed for the entire week of Thanksgiving, not just Thursday and Friday. So two parents can agree that one of them "has Thanksgiving" this year and still disagree about almost everything that matters: does that mean Thursday dinner, the long weekend, or the whole week off school? A plan written with a two-day holiday in mind can leave most of that week unassigned, and the regular schedule may split it in ways neither parent expected. Winter break raises the same problem on a bigger scale, since it covers Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's, and, and, in some years, part of Hanukkah. (In 2026, Hanukkah ends before winter break begins—so unless your plan lists it as its own holiday, the regular schedule likely governs those nights.)
School calendars add one more variable. Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach each publish their own. For 2026–27, all three public school districts are closed November 23–27 for Thanksgiving and December 21 through January 1 for winter break. Private and charter schools may differ. Many plans tie the start of a break to the last day of classes.
Common Ways Florida Parents Divide Winter Break
Winter break is long enough that most families split it. The standard Florida form offers several options, and these are the most common:
Split the break in half and alternate. One parent has the children from the last school day until a set date and time, and the other parent has the rest. The halves flip each year, so neither parent is shut out of Christmas morning for good.
Split by the holiday itself. Christmas Eve goes to one parent and Christmas Day to the other, trading each year. It works best when both parents live close together, since it means more handoffs in a short window.
Alternate the entire break. One parent has all of winter break in even years and the other in odd years, which suits families where one parent lives far away.
A hypothetical, to make it concrete. Say a plan gives Parent A the first half of winter break in even years, with the exchange set for 2 PM on December 26. In 2026, Parent A has the children from the end of the last school day through Christmas Day, then hands them off at 2 PM on the 26th. Parent B has them from that afternoon until the evening before school starts again. In 2027 the order flips, and Parent B is the one waking up with the kids on Christmas morning.
If a judge ends up setting the schedule, keep one more thing in mind. Since 2023, Florida law starts from the position that equal timesharing is in a child's best interest, and the parent asking for something different has to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that a different schedule is better for the child. That's a useful reality check before digging in on a schedule that gives one parent every holiday.
Not sure what your plan actually says about winter break, or whether it says anything at all? Bring it to a consultation and we'll go through it with you line by line. Our team speaks English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. Call us at 305-615-1005 or visit www.jp-lawgroup.com.
Pin Down the Details Before They Turn Into Arguments
Exact times, not just days. "Thursday" is a disagreement waiting to happen. "Thursday at 10 AM until Friday at 6 PM" is not.
The exchange location. Under Florida law, a parenting plan has to name authorized places to exchange the child unless both parents agree otherwise in writing. Holidays move people around (dinner at a grandparent's house in Kendall, a weekend with cousins in Orlando), so confirm your usual spot still works or agree on a new one in writing.
Who drives, and how far. Holiday traffic eats into holiday time, so decide who picks up, who drops off, or whether you meet halfway.
Travel out of town. If either parent plans to take the children out of state or out of the country, check your plan for notice, itinerary, and consent requirements before anyone books a flight. Those clauses don't take the holidays off.
Then put every agreement in writing. A text works, but a co-parenting app is better, because it keeps a dated record of what was proposed and accepted.
What If the Two of You Can't Agree?
Start with a short, specific written proposal, and send it early. A request in the first week of November reads as planning. The same request on December 20 reads as an ambush, even when it's perfectly reasonable.
If you agree on a one-time change for this year only, a clear written agreement between the two of you is usually enough. A change you want to repeat every year is different. A permanent change to a parenting plan generally has to be approved by the court, and if the other parent objects, Florida requires a substantial and material change in circumstances (meaning something important has changed since the plan was entered) before a judge will rewrite it.
When talking directly isn't working, mediation (a meeting with a neutral person who helps both parents reach their own agreement) is often the next step. If mediation doesn't produce an agreement, the case can still move forward in court.
One honest caution about timing: court calendars fill up, and a disagreement about Thursday dinner usually isn't treated as an emergency. Raise a problem in mid-December and there may not be time to get it before a judge.
When the Other Parent Doesn't Follow the Schedule
Sometimes everyone agrees in November and someone changes their mind in December. If the other parent keeps the children through your holiday time without your agreement and without a good reason, Florida law does provide a remedy. Under Florida Statute 61.13(4)(c), when a court finds that a parent refused to honor the time-sharing schedule without proper cause, it must award the other parent enough extra time to make up for what was missed, and it can also order the parent who didn't comply to pay court costs and attorney's fees or complete a parenting course.
What the law can't do is give you that particular Christmas morning back. That's why how you respond in the moment matters:
Document it. Note the date, the time, and what was said, and save every message.
Don't retaliate. Keeping the children during the other parent's next holiday doesn't cancel the first violation. It creates a second one and weakens your position.
Keep the children out of it. They didn't write the schedule and shouldn't carry the argument.
If an exchange ever feels unsafe, that's a different conversation, and Florida courts have tools for it, including safe exchange locations and supervised timesharing.
Your November Holiday Planning Checklist
Find your parenting plan and read the holiday sections. Note whether it alternates by even and odd years.
Check the school calendar. Confirm when each break starts and ends for your child's school.
Write down every handoff. Date, time, place, and who drives, for every exchange between now and the first day back.
Send one written proposal this month. Keep it brief, specific, and focused on the children.
Confirm travel before booking. Give notice and get any required consent in writing first.
Get help early if you need it. If the plan is silent, unclear, or the other parent won't engage, a conversation with a family law attorney in November is far easier than a scramble in December.
Legal Guidance You Can Trust
The holiday calls we get most often come from parents who thought everything was settled. They had a plan, they had a rough understanding with the other parent, and then a single line in the plan turned out to mean two different things to two different people.
When that happens in December, the options shrink quickly. Trips get cancelled, children overhear arguments meant for adults, and one holiday dispute can become the first entry in a much longer record. A plan that names the hours, the handoff spot, and the split for every break won't remove all conflict, but it removes the ambiguity that usually starts it.
At Jarbath Peña Law Group, we help parents across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach make sense of the holiday provisions they already have, put clear written agreements in place for the season ahead, and, when a plan keeps causing the same fight every year, ask the court to fix it for good. We work in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole, and we would much rather help you settle the calendar now than untangle it in January.
Settle the calendar in November, and December gets to be about your children.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Florida law say which parent gets Thanksgiving or Christmas?
No. Florida law requires a time-sharing schedule but doesn't assign specific holidays to either parent, so your parenting plan controls. If the plan doesn't mention a particular holiday, the regular schedule usually governs that day, unless your plan says otherwise.
Our plan says we alternate Thanksgiving. Who has it in 2026?
2026 is an even year. Check the Thanksgiving row of your holiday schedule—whoever is listed under even years has it, for the begin and end times shown. If your plan says the holiday alternates but doesn't name a starting year, the parent who did not have it in 2025 usually has it this year. If you and your co-parent read it differently, settle it in writing now.
Can I take my children to see family in another state over winter break?
It depends on your plan's travel provisions and whose time it is. Many Florida parenting plans require advance notice, an itinerary, or written consent before a child leaves the state or the country. If the other parent refuses consent without a good reason, you can ask the court for permission, so leave enough time.
What if my child doesn't want to go to the other parent's house for the holiday?
The parenting plan is a court order, and a child's reluctance doesn't change it. The parent who has the child is generally expected to support the exchange, not leave the decision to the child. Listen to the reason behind it, and if there is a genuine safety concern, speak with an attorney right away. A child's reasonable preference can be considered if the plan is later modified, depending on the child's age and maturity.
The other parent kept the kids past the exchange time on Christmas. What can I do?
Start by writing down what happened and saving any messages. If it's part of a pattern, or you lost a meaningful part of your holiday time, a court can award make-up time under Florida Statute 61.13(4)(c), and an attorney can help you decide whether it's worth pursuing.
Want this to be the year the holiday schedule is settled before the first argument? Contact Jarbath Peña Law Group today at 305-615-1005 or visit us at www.jp-lawgroup.com for a consultation. We'll help you head into the holidays with a plan both homes can follow.
This article is for general information and is not legal advice.
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