Ho, Ho, Holiday Possession 101

By Casey Kelly, Associate Attorney

With the holiday season rapidly approaching, parents everywhere are going through their holiday checklist: purchasing food, wrapping presents, decorating the house, possibly planning a winter vacation, etc. For divorced parents, or single parents with court orders regarding their custody, the checklist often includes dusting off that old decree and figuring out how the children will spend the holidays.

The good news is that for parents with a Standard Possession Order, the rules tend to be straightforward. This article will outline, generally, how the Standard Possession Order allocates holiday time between parents and children. Please note, if you and your co-parent have a Customized Possession Order or a Modified Possession Order, the following rules may not apply to you.

The first rule of planning holiday time with your children and your co-parent in mind is extremely simple. The rule is this: if the parents are in agreement, then there is no rule! In other words, if the co-parenting team can work together to coordinate schedules that everyone is happy with, the co-parents can coordinate those schedules without needing to consult the court order. For example, just because Parent 1 technically is entitled to Thanksgiving this year, if Parent 1 and Parent 2 agree that the parents will split Thanksgiving in half, the agreement becomes the rule. Be sure to get this agreement in writing, though.

All of the other rules for holiday possession only kick into gear if the co-parenting team cannot formulate an agreement.

Thanksgiving

While Thanksgiving is now behind us, we wanted to make sure the rules regarding Thanksgiving are here for your future reference. In general, the Standard Possession Order for the Thanksgiving holidays operates to give one parent possession for the Thanksgiving holidays in one year and the other parent possession in the next year. To simplify the “alternating” language, the Standard Possession Order usually designates one parent to have possession of the children during even years and the other parent to have possession of the children during odd years. Possession begins at the time the children’s school is dismissed for the holidays or at 6:00 PM the day school is dismissed for the holiday, and possession ends at 6:00 PM on the Sunday before school resumes for the holidays. Of special note in regards to Thanksgiving: when some Standard Possession Orders become Expanded Standard Possession Orders, the regular weekend drop-off at the end of each weekend is the time school resumes. This change does not apply to Thanksgiving possession; the Thanksgiving possession ends promptly at 6:00 PM on the Sunday before school resumes.
Additionally, in many school districts, the Thanksgiving holiday usually consists of only half of the Thanksgiving week. However, Austin Independent School District has recently altered their schedule to allow for a full week of Thanksgiving holiday time. This new schedule gives the parent with Thanksgiving significantly more time with their children, as the possession would start on the Friday prior to Thanksgiving.

Winter Holidays

The winter holidays in the Standard Possession Order are split in half. The children under a Standard Possession Order spend one half of the winter holidays with one parent, and the second half of the winter holidays with the other parent. The parent entitled to possession for each respective half alternates every year.

As in the Thanksgiving provisions, the parents switch possession of the children for their half of the winter holidays based on whether the year is even or odd. For example, in even years, Parent 1 gets the first half and Parent 2 gets the second half of the winter holidays. Then, in odd years, Parent 2 gets the first half and Parent 1 gets the second half.

The exact manner in which the winter holidays are divided is spelled out in the Standard Possession Order. The first half of the holidays period is from the time school lets out for the winter break, and the first half ends at noon on December 28th. The second half of the holidays begins at noon on December 28th, and the second half ends at 6:00 P.M. on the day before school resumes after winter break. The purpose of the split taking place on the days it does is to allow the co-parents to alternate Christmases and New Years, and it results in a roughly equal split of the winter break.

Again, the aforementioned rules only kick in if the co-parents are unable to agree to a schedule on their own, and the aforementioned rules only apply to parents who have the Standard Possession Order. For parents with a Modified or Custom Possession Order, please refer to the terms of the order.

At CHA Law Group, we understand that the holidays can be a stressful time for all families. Hopefully with this little guide, some of your holiday stress can be alleviated. And if you ever need clarification of your custody orders, or if you need assistance in enforcing or modifying your custody orders, please do not hesitate to reach out.