Including Holidays in a Massachusetts Parenting Plan
Every Massachusetts divorce or paternity judgment involving minor children must include a parenting plan. To formulate a plan, parents must negotiate a holiday schedule. Understandably, the holidays often hold emotional weight for each parent. However, neither statute nor appellate case law prescribes a specific formula for dividing holiday time. Parents and their attorneys have considerable latitude to design a schedule that fits their family, so long as it reflects the child’s best interests.
Holiday time is treated differently from the regular schedule
A parenting plan typically includes two layers of scheduling: the regular recurring plan governing ordinary weeks and a holiday or vacation schedule that supersedes the regular plan whenever the two overlap. A well-drafted plan should explicitly state that if a regular weekend or weekday period is displaced by a holiday, that displaced period is not made up later. Attempting to “bank” missed parenting time can generate disputes.
Choosing which holidays belong on the list
The first task is identifying which occasions deserve their own defined provision rather than falling under the regular schedule. Major celebrations such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and the child’s birthday are nearly always addressed. Agreements may define some major federal holidays such as Independence Day; however, many Monday holidays are not specifically addressed. Some parents address Monday holidays by providing that whichever parent already has the child for the preceding weekend continues to have the child through the Monday holiday, treating it as an extension of that weekend rather than a separate event requiring its own transfer. Families observing religious traditions beyond Christmas often add those to the agreement as well. Beyond major calendar holidays, most parenting plans address each parent’s birthdays and Mother and Father’s Day, usually assigning each designated day to the celebrating parent. Overall, the guiding consideration drawn from the Massachusetts shared parenting literature is continuity. Children benefit when particular holidays continue to be celebrated in the manner the child has always known.
Alternating years versus splitting the day
One approach parents use to divide holidays is alternating years. This approach assigns an entire holiday to one parent in odd-numbered years and to the other parent in even-numbered years. This works well for holidays that are difficult to divide within a single day, such as Thanksgiving. The split-day approach divides a holiday into blocks, with one parent having the child in the morning till a set hour and the other parent having them for the remainder of the day. This tends to suit holidays like the child’s birthday, where both parents want contact regardless of the year.
Defining start and end times with precision
Vague holiday language is a common source of post-judgment disputes. To eliminate ambiguity, it is best that each holiday provision include precisely when parenting time begins and ends. For example, Thanksgiving is often defined as commencing at school dismissal on the Wednesday before the holiday and concluding at a specific hour on Sunday.
Coordinating summer vacation separately from holiday time
Summer vacation often warrants its own distinct provision. A typical structure gives each parent one to two weeks of vacation time. Each parent typically selects vacation weeks before an agreed-upon date and alternates the first selection of vacation weeks from year to year. Plans should also state whether vacation weeks must be taken consecutively or may be split into non-consecutive blocks, since this affects how much notice and coordination the parties will need regarding camps and other summer commitments.
A complete holiday and vacation schedule anticipates practical logistics beyond allocation of days. Provisions commonly require the traveling parent to give the other parent reasonable advance notice before taking the child out of state for more than a short period, along with a travel itinerary and contact information. Many agreements also address who bears the responsibility for associated travel costs.
Keeping the plan flexible enough to survive the child’s growth
A holiday schedule drafted when a child is young will not necessarily serve the family well once that child is a teenager with independent social commitments. Massachusetts practice encourages parents to revisit the parenting plan as children move through developmental stages or whenever a significant event occurs. Under the best interest standard that governs custody determinations, all relevant factors must be considered, and a judge evaluating a proposed plan is required to show genuine consideration of the evidence before adopting it. This means parents cannot assume a submitted parenting schedule will be approved without scrutiny for whether it actually serves the child.
Overall, a holiday schedule that functions well in practice is one that leaves little room for interpretation, anticipates recurring points of friction between regular and holiday time, and reflects the family’s own traditions.