Planning something around Sri Lanka in December 2026? Whether you are booking end-of-year flights, arranging office leave, planning a temple visit, or just want to know which days banks and schools stay closed, this Sri Lanka Calendar December 2026 guide puts everything in one place. Inside you will find every public holiday, the last Poya (full moon) day of the year, Christmas, a long-weekend tip, a full month grid, and a free printable calendar you can download and keep.
December closes out Sri Lanka’s holiday calendar in a fitting way — the year’s final full moon and the year’s biggest Christian festival sit only two days apart. In Tamil, this guide could be titled “இலங்கை நாட்காட்டி – டிசம்பர் 2026” (Sri Lanka Calendar – December 2026), and that small touch of language is a fair preview of how many communities share this one calendar.
Sri Lanka December 2026 At a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Month | December 2026 |
| Total days in the month | 31 |
| Public holidays | 2 (Unduvap Full Moon Poya Day and Christmas Day) |
| Weekend days | 9 Saturdays and Sundays |
| Best long weekend | 23–27 December (take 1 day of leave) |
| Main Poya day | Unduvap Full Moon Poya Day – 23 December, Wednesday |
| Main festival | Christmas Day (கிறிஸ்துமஸ்) – 25 December, Friday |
| Sri Lanka time zone | GMT +5:30 |
| First day of the month | Tuesday, 1 December 2026 |
Download the Free Sri Lanka Calendar December 2026
To make planning easier, we have put together a simple, one-page, print-ready PDF version of this Sri Lanka Calendar for December 2026, with both holidays clearly marked in English and Tamil. You can download it, print it for your office notice board or fridge, save it to your phone for quick reference, or attach it to a year-end leave-planning email for your team. The calendar is free to use for personal purposes — just use the download link provided with this article to save your own copy. It is built to be simple enough to glance at during a busy final month of the year, without needing to scroll back through this whole page every time.
Public Holidays in Sri Lanka – December 2026 (Full List)
December carries two holidays, and both fall in the same short week, which is good news if you are planning leave. One closes out the Buddhist lunar calendar for the year, and the other closes out the Gregorian calendar with Sri Lanka’s main Christian festival.
| Date | Day | Holiday | Mainly Observed By |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 December 2026 | Wednesday | Unduvap Full Moon Poya Day | Buddhist and Sinhala community, nationwide holiday |
| 25 December 2026 | Friday | Christmas Day | Christian community, nationwide holiday |
Both are gazetted public holidays, meaning government offices, schools, banks, and most private businesses across Sri Lanka close for the day. If you run a business page, a travel blog, or are simply mapping out your December, these are the two dates to mark first.
Unduvap Full Moon Poya Day – 23 December 2026
Unduvap Full Moon Poya Day, falling on Wednesday, 23 December 2026, is the last Poya of the year. It marks the full moon in Unduvap, the ninth month of the Sinhalese calendar, and closes out a year that has already carried twelve other Poya observances since January.
This particular Poya has a special place in Sri Lankan Buddhist history. It commemorates the arrival of Sangamitta Theri, daughter of Emperor Ashoka of India, who sailed to Sri Lanka carrying a sapling of the sacred Bodhi tree — the very tree under which the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment. According to tradition, King Devanampiya Tissa planted this sapling in Anuradhapura in 288 BC, and it survives there today as the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, believed to be the oldest human-planted tree in the world with a known planting date.
Thousands of devotees travel to Anuradhapura on this Poya day (பௌர்ணமி) every year to pay their respects to the sacred tree, observe sil, and take part in religious ceremonies. As with every Poya day, alcohol and meat sales are officially restricted on 23 December, and government offices, schools, and banks stay closed nationwide.
Christmas Day 2026 in Sri Lanka – 25 December
Christmas Day falls on Friday, 25 December 2026, giving Sri Lanka’s Christian community — and the country as a whole — an official public holiday to mark the occasion. Sri Lanka’s Christian population, both Catholic and Protestant, is concentrated along the western coast, with Negombo in particular known as “Little Rome” for its many churches and strong Christmas traditions.
In the days leading up to 25 December, homes and streets in Negombo, Colombo, and other coastal towns fill with lights, decorated trees, and carol singers going door to door. Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve is widely attended, followed by family meals, home visits, and sweets shared with neighbours on Christmas Day itself, regardless of religion. It is common to hear people greet each other with “இனிய கிறிஸ்துமஸ் நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்”, a warm way of wishing someone a Happy Christmas in Tamil, since Sri Lanka’s Christian community includes both Sinhala and Tamil speakers.
Long Weekend Alert: Plan Around 23–27 December
December 2026 quietly offers the best long weekend of the year’s final quarter. Unduvap Full Moon Poya Day falls on Wednesday, 23 December, and Christmas Day falls on Friday, 25 December — with only one working day, Thursday 24 December, sitting between them.
Take that single Thursday off, and you turn two separate holidays into five days off in a row, running from Wednesday, 23 December straight through to Sunday, 27 December. For a cost of just one day’s leave, that is one of the most efficient long weekends Sri Lanka’s calendar offers all year — useful to know whether you are planning your own trip or writing travel content aimed at people who are.
This kind of window suits a short getaway well: a cooler few days in Nuwara Eliya or Ella, a beach stretch in the south, or a pilgrimage-style visit to Anuradhapura that combines both the Poya observance and some sightseeing before heading back for Christmas.
Full December 2026 Calendar – Week by Week
December 1, 2026 falls on a Tuesday, and the month runs the full 31 days, ending on Thursday, 31 December. Here is the complete layout at a glance:
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 – Unduvap Poya | 24 | 25 – Christmas | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Notice how the month’s only two holidays sit right next to each other in the fourth week, while the first three weeks of December run without a single public holiday — worth knowing if you are scheduling work travel earlier in the month.
Why December Closes the Year the Way It Does
Sri Lanka has two official languages, Sinhala and Tamil, and its national calendar reflects the island’s many communities right through to the last month of the year. Unduvap Poya closes the Buddhist lunar calendar’s yearly cycle, while Christmas closes the Gregorian calendar with the Christian community’s main festival. Interestingly, 31 December and 1 January are not public holidays in Sri Lanka, just as 1 January was not a holiday earlier in the year — the island’s main New Year celebration is the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in April instead, known as Aluth Avurudu in Sinhala and புத்தாண்டு (Puthandu) in Tamil.
So while much of the world treats 31 December as a build-up to a big midnight countdown, in Sri Lanka it is, officially at least, a normal working day sandwiched right after Christmas. December, in that sense, is a quiet but meaningful close to a calendar that has made room for Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian observances all year long.
How We Verified These Dates (Our Sources)
Getting a calendar date wrong can mean a missed flight, a closed bank, or a confused travel plan, so accuracy matters more here than in most kinds of content. The dates in this guide were cross-checked against Sri Lanka’s official Government Gazette holiday circular for 2026, published by the Department of Government Printing, alongside public holiday listings maintained by established Sri Lanka–focused holiday and travel information sources.
Poya days are calculated using the lunar calendar, so while the Unduvap Poya date above is confirmed for 2026 as things currently stand, it is always sensible to check the most recent Gazette notice close to your actual travel or leave date, in case of a late official amendment. Christmas, being a fixed-date holiday, does not carry this uncertainty. This page reflects the calendar as published for 2026, and we would rather flag that small possibility honestly than present every date as beyond any doubt.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. How many public holidays does Sri Lanka have in December 2026? Sri Lanka has two public holidays in December 2026: Unduvap Full Moon Poya Day on 23 December (Wednesday) and Christmas Day on 25 December (Friday).
Q2. What does Unduvap Full Moon Poya Day mark? It is the last Poya of the year and commemorates the arrival of Sangamitta Theri, who brought a sapling of the sacred Bodhi tree from India to Anuradhapura, where it still grows today as one of Buddhism’s most sacred relics.
Q3. Is Christmas a public holiday in Sri Lanka? Yes. Christmas Day, 25 December, is an official gazetted public holiday in Sri Lanka. It is mainly observed by the Christian community but counts as a nationwide holiday, so offices and banks close for everyone.
Q4. Is there a long weekend in Sri Lanka in December 2026? Yes, a good one. By taking a single day of leave on Thursday, 24 December, you can link Unduvap Poya and Christmas into a five-day break running from Wednesday, 23 December to Sunday, 27 December.
Q5. Are banks and shops closed on 31 December or 1 January in Sri Lanka? No. Neither 31 December nor 1 January is an official public holiday in Sri Lanka, since the island’s main New Year celebration is the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in April, not the Gregorian calendar new year.
Q6. Can I download this Sri Lanka calendar for December 2026? Yes. A free, printable PDF version of this calendar, with both holidays marked in English and Tamil, is available to download directly from this page.
Q7. Which parts of Sri Lanka celebrate Christmas most visibly? Negombo, often called “Little Rome” for its many churches, along with Colombo and other western coastal towns with large Catholic populations, tend to have the most visible Christmas decorations, carol singing, and church services.