Winter Vacation 2026-27: State-wise School Holiday Dates

Status checked 23 Oct 2026, 11:00 AM IST: 2026-27 winter break dates are official for Delhi DoE schools, UP council schools, Rajasthan, Bihar and Kendriya Vidyalayas, and Himachal Pradesh follows a standing schedule. West Bengal’s board list gives state-board schools only Christmas Day. The other states covered here have not notified theirs yet.

The winter vacation 2026-27 picture is only half drawn. A few school systems fixed their December–January break back in spring, when they printed the academic calendar. Most of north India works differently: the state waits until December, watches the fog and the minimum temperature, and then issues an order, sometimes two or three. So the honest answer to “when do schools close for winter this year?” depends on where your child studies and which department runs the school.

This page sorts that out state by state. For each one you will find what is already official for 2026-27, what the state actually did last winter (2025-26), and who has the power to change the dates at short notice. We will keep updating the table as orders come in.

Winter vacation 2026-27: state-wise status table

Read the table in two halves. The third column is what has been officially fixed for the coming winter. The fourth is last year’s record, which is the best guide for states that have not announced anything yet, because their pattern rarely changes much from one year to the next. Where a date in the last-year column was later extended, the extension is shown too.

A practical point about the table: “not announced” does not mean “no vacation”. Punjab and Haryana have given a break every winter in recent years. They simply announce it late, usually in the last fortnight of December, and the weather in that week shapes how long it runs.

Scheduled vacation vs cold-wave closure: why the dates keep moving

Parents often treat these as the same thing. They are not, and knowing the difference saves a lot of confusion in January.

A scheduled winter vacation is written into the academic calendar. Delhi’s Directorate of Education put the 2026-27 dates into its annual calendar in April; Rajasthan did the same in its Shivira Panchang, signed on 31 March 2026; KVS headquarters issued its 2026-27 vacation schedule in January 2026 (revised on 19 January). These dates are known months ahead, and teachers, exam branches and transport contractors plan around them.

A cold-wave or fog closure is an emergency order. It comes from the state government when the cold is widespread (Punjab and Uttar Pradesh both did this last winter), or from the district magistrate or deputy commissioner when it is local. Patna and Muzaffarpur, for instance, shut schools and anganwadi centres on district orders in December 2025, as India Today reported. These orders can come the night before, and they can be extended two or three times.

Who can shut a school at short notice

Three levels of authority were at work last winter. The state government announced blanket extensions, often through the chief minister or the education minister on social media, followed by a formal order. District magistrates closed schools in their own districts, sometimes only for junior classes. And the school education directorate issued the written instructions that heads of schools actually follow, including who still has to come in.

In Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered all schools up to Class 12 across CBSE, ICSE and UP Board shut till 1 January 2026, The Indian Express reported on 30 December 2025. On 2 January the closure was pushed to 5 January, as Mint reported. After that, the decision passed to districts: by 7 January, schools up to Class 8 in several UP districts had been told to stay shut till 14 January.

What usually changes during a cold spell

• The end date gets pushed, usually by a few days at a time rather than a fortnight in one go.
• Junior classes stay home longer. Chandigarh kept classes up to VIII shut while Classes X and XII ran from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm.
• Board classes are often carved out for practicals, pre-boards or revision.
• Timings shift once schools reopen, with a later start for fog-hit mornings.
• Private schools are included when the order says so. Punjab’s order named private schools, and UP’s covered every board.

State-wise winter vacation dates and last year’s orders

Here is the detail behind each row of the table, with the order or report it comes from.

Delhi

Delhi is the easiest state to plan for, because the Directorate of Education fixes the break in its annual calendar. The Annual School Calendar for 2025-26 (circular dated 11 April 2025) listed winter vacation from 1 January 2026 (Thursday) to 15 January 2026 (Thursday). For 2026-27, the DoE calendar released in April 2026 gives 1 to 15 January 2027, according to a PTI report carried by The Indian Express. That works out to Friday, 1 January, to Friday, 15 January 2027.

The calendar covers government and government-aided schools. Private schools in Delhi set their own breaks, which is why a family with one child in a DoE school and another in a private school can end up with two different holiday windows.

Uttar Pradesh

UP has two calendars to watch. The Basic Shiksha Parishad runs the council primary, upper primary and composite schools, and its holiday calendar fixes winter vacation from 31 December 2026 to 14 January 2027, as per the calendar reported by Hindustan Times on 4 January 2026. That is a 15-day break, Thursday to Thursday. Secondary schools under UP Board follow separate orders, and we have not seen a 2026-27 winter date for them yet.

Last winter showed how quickly the state can override a calendar. The state-wide closure till 1 January and then 5 January applied to every board. District magistrates then extended it for younger children. If your child is in Noida or Ghaziabad, watch the Gautam Buddh Nagar or Ghaziabad DM’s orders, not Delhi’s. For UP Board students in Classes 10 and 12, the UP Board 10th time table 2027 is worth keeping next to the holiday notice.

Punjab

Punjab had already closed schools from 24 to 31 December 2025. On 31 December, Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains extended the holidays in all government, aided, recognised and private schools until 7 January, The Tribune reported. A week later came a second extension, to 13 January, with schools reopening on 14 January, the day after Lohri (The Tribune).

Nothing has been announced for 2026-27 yet. Going by last year, expect an order around the third week of December.

Haryana

Haryana’s Directorate of School Education announced on 23 December 2025 that all government and recognised schools, Classes 1 to 12, would have winter vacation from 1 to 15 January 2026, The Indian Express reported. The letter added that Class 10 and 12 students could be called in for practical examinations as per CBSE, ICSE and other board rules. On 15 January the break was extended to Saturday, 17 January, with reopening on Monday, 19 January, as Amar Ujala reported that day and the Sonipat deputy commissioner’s official account posted.

For 2026-27, no order yet. Haryana used the same 1 to 15 January window in January 2023 as well (The Tribune), so families can pencil it in, but should not book anything non-refundable on that basis alone.

Chandigarh

Chandigarh’s UT Education Department did not run one clean vacation last winter. It kept regulating school days as the cold dragged on. By 13 January 2026, The Tribune reported, there had been extensions till 10 January and 13 January, and a fresh order kept classes up to VIII and the non-board Classes IX and XI out of school till 17 January, with online classes allowed. Classes X and XII were allowed to run from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm.

Rajasthan

Rajasthan’s Directorate of Secondary Education, Bikaner, has fixed the 2026-27 break in the Shivira Panchang 2026-27: winter vacation from 31 December 2026 to 10 January 2027. The same document sets the mid-term break from 4 to 15 November 2026. The session itself runs from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027.

Last winter the break ran from 25 December 2025 to 5 January 2026 (NDTV). After that, district administrations in Jaipur, Ganganagar, Hanumangarh and Sikar extended it, mainly for primary classes (The Indian Express). Families in those districts could see similar orders if the cold is severe again.

Madhya Pradesh

For 2025-26, the state’s schedule gave government and private schools a winter break from 31 December 2025 to 4 January 2026, Free Press Journal reported when the calendar came out in April 2025. We have not been able to confirm the 2026-27 winter dates from an official MP source, so the table says so. We will add them once confirmed.

Bihar

Bihar’s Education Department publishes a calendar-year holiday list. The 2026 list, issued in December 2025, gives winter vacation from 25 to 31 December 2026, covering Christmas and Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti, according to Dainik Jagran. Last year’s break was also 25 to 31 December (NDTV).

Do not read that as “schools reopen on 1 January”. In Bihar, district magistrates often add cold-wave closures on top of the scheduled break, district by district.

Jharkhand

Ranchi district shut all schools, from kindergarten to Class 12, until 31 December 2025 (The Indian Express). In early January the state government ordered all schools in Jharkhand closed, and the closure ran till 8 January 2026 (The Indian Express). A 2026-27 date has not been confirmed from an official source.

Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand is the hardest to pin down. The plains districts deal with fog, the hill districts with snow and cold, and the two rarely need the same dates. We could not find a single state-wide winter vacation date for 2025-26 in an official order or a major news report, so parents there should follow the district magistrate’s notices closely from mid-December.

Himachal Pradesh

Himachal runs two calendars, and this matters more here than anywhere else. The vacation schedule approved by the state’s Secretary (Education) on 29 March 2025, and applied from session 2025-26, splits schools into winter-closing and summer-closing schools (order circulated by the Directorate of Higher Education).

Winter-closing schools

These are the cold, high-altitude schools, including the tribal areas of Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti, Pangi and Bharmour. Their winter vacation runs from 1 January to 11 February, 42 days. Their other breaks are short: in most areas, six days in August for the monsoon and four days around Diwali.

Summer-closing schools

Schools in the warmer areas get a winter break of just eight days, 1 to 8 January. The same eight-day window applies to the hottest pockets such as Una district and parts of Kangra, Solan and Sirmaur, which get a longer summer break instead.

Jammu and Kashmir

Kashmir division and the winter zone of Jammu

Kashmir has the longest winter vacation in this list. Last year the schedule came out on 25 November 2025: pre-primary classes closed from 26 November, Classes 1 to 8 from 1 December, and Classes 9 to 12 from 11 December, with reopening staggered between 22 February and 1 March 2026 (The Indian Express). Expect the 2026-27 schedule around the same time, in late November.

Summer zone of Jammu

The Directorate of School Education, Jammu, gave its summer-zone schools a much shorter break: pre-primary to Class 5 from 22 December 2025, Classes 6 to 8 from 26 December, and Classes 9 to 12 from 29 December, all up to 10 January 2026 (News On AIR). Teachers had to remain available for academic work during the break if required.

Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh’s School Education Department calendar for 2025-26 kept the winter break short, from 22 to 27 December 2025, six days in all (News18). For 2026-27, the department notified its academic calendar on 21 September 2026 and later revised only the Diwali break, to 6 to 11 November, UNI reported. We have not yet seen the winter-break dates in that calendar in an official copy or a major news report, so the table leaves them open.

West Bengal

Bengal schools take their long break in autumn, around the Pujas, and keep the winter break very short. The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education’s Model Holiday List 2026 (notification dated 9 December 2025) gives 65 holidays in all (The Telegraph), including a Puja vacation from 15 October to 12 November 2026. Its only December holiday is Christmas Day, Friday, 25 December 2026, and there is no separate winter vacation for WBBSE schools (the September to December section also leaves one day to the headmaster’s discretion). Last year, national round-ups listed a break from 25 December 2025 to 1 January 2026 (NDTV). CBSE, ICSE and other schools outside the WBBSE list set their own December breaks, so check your school’s notice.

Kendriya Vidyalayas and CBSE schools

CBSE does not declare a winter vacation for its affiliated schools. A CBSE school follows its own calendar, plus whatever closure orders the state or district issues. Kendriya Vidyalayas are different: KVS fixes their vacations centrally, by region, and the 2026-27 schedule is already out (KVS headquarters office memorandum, revised, dated 19 January 2026, circulated by KVS Regional Office Mumbai).

If your child is in a CBSE private school preparing for boards, the winter break is usually thinner than it looks: pre-boards and practicals can sit close to it. Keep the CBSE Class 10 date sheet 2027 and the CBSE Class 12 date sheet 2027 handy when the school sends its January plan. Students on the CISCE side can check the ICSE Class 10 time table 2027.

How to check your school’s winter vacation dates

State tables help, but the date that counts is the one on your school’s notice. This is the order in which we would check.

1. Work out whose calendar applies. A government school follows the state department’s calendar. A KV follows KVS. A private CBSE or ICSE school follows its own calendar but must obey state and district closure orders that name it.
2. Look for the annual calendar first. Delhi’s DoE circulars, Rajasthan’s Shivira Panchang and KVS’s vacation schedule are all published as PDFs on official sites.
3. From mid-December, follow the district administration. Cold-wave orders can appear first on the DM’s or deputy commissioner’s official social media account, as Sonipat’s did last January.
4. Read the scope line in the order. Which classes, which boards, whether teachers must attend, and whether Class 10 and 12 practicals continue.
5. Separate the “till” date from the reopening date. Haryana’s break ran till Saturday, 17 January 2026; schools reopened on Monday, 19 January.
6. Confirm with the school before you book travel. Ask the class teacher or check the school app; private schools may follow dates of their own.

Planning around winter vacation 2026-27: what parents can do now

Some decisions can be made today; others should wait till December. A few worked examples from the dates above:

• Delhi DoE school: the 1 to 15 January 2027 window is already in the official calendar. Travel booked inside those dates is low risk, though an extension at the end is always possible.
• UP council school, family in Lucknow: the official break is 31 December 2026 to 14 January 2027. Last year the state shut every school in the last days of December, before the council break even began, so keep that week flexible.
• Punjab or Haryana: nothing is fixed yet. Last year’s breaks ran from 24 December to 13 January in Punjab and 1 to 17 January in Haryana. Plan around early January, but wait for the order.
• KV in Patna or Delhi: 23 December 2026 to 11 January 2027, per the KVS schedule. Children in a KV in Jaipur or Bhopal get a much shorter break, ending on Saturday, 2 January 2027.
• Kashmir: going by last year, the break will run into late February, with the schedule usually out in late November.

One more thing for board-year families. Last year Haryana’s vacation letter said Class 10 and 12 students could be called for practicals during the break, and Chandigarh kept those two classes running. A “school holiday” headline does not always cover your child if they are in Class 10 or 12.

Parents of children in Maharishi Vidya Mandir schools should check the branch’s own notice; our page on MVM school timings and holiday list has what we know about branch timings, and the MVM branch list has contact details state by state. If you are also looking at a school change next year, the MVM fee structure page will help you compare costs.

Winter vacation 2026-27: frequently asked questions

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Official links: winter vacation notices

About the author

Aditi Sood

Aditi Sood is a Senior Editor at MVM Times and has been writing since 2014. She edits our coverage of exams, government jobs, schemes, breaking news and international stories, including finance and markets. Read full profile →

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