Holidays

Holidays can be a time for fun and family togetherness-BBQ's, water-skiing, winter festivities, fireworks. However, these national holidays (New Year's Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Independence Day, Labor Day and Memorial Day) are those holidays where more than the post office is closed, these holidays require that a change of visitation be observed. Father's Day and/or Mother's Day and that parent's birthday is sometimes included in the holiday list. Primarily the national holidays are the ones that are the hardest to deal with. With the 4th of July fast approaching, the divorced parents must arrange holiday visitation and possibly even that summer visit. So what is the solution to figuring out who is entitled to that holiday? Well, its simple-sometimes! Remember, this is not supposed to take place for legal advice. Consult an attorney or legal representative in your area as laws vary from state to state.

First: Look at the decree. Look at your divorce decree or final judgement. This in many cases will have a section labeled "Holidays". This will tell you which holiday you are entitled to have the children or which one the other parent is to have visitation. Sometimes this will really depend on how far the parent is. If the parent lives 2000 miles from the other parent, a one day holiday visitation schedule might not be possible. Also, if the child is visiting the other parent for the summer, and a one day visit is possible, a reverse schedule may be possible. For example, Sue is visiting Mom for summer visitation and Dad is the primary custodian. Mom lives in the same city. Dad might be entitled under the visitation schedule to have July 4th holiday visitation. Another way that a court may divvy the holidays is to divide by odd years and even years. If your decree says that read section "Final" of this article to determine how this works.

Second: Try and come to an agreement Where the decree is silent, coming to an agreement might be appropriate. There are 3 ways that this can be accomplished. 1) At the beginning of the year, choose holidays for that year dividing equally. That way you can take into account vacation, days off from work, and other factors. 2) Choose who gets the holiday, shortly before the holiday itself. However, this could be more troublesome as a parent may have already "assumed" that they would get the holiday and make plans prior to the arrangement. 3)No change in visitation. Keep to the same schedule and make no special accommodations for holidays. However, those holidays that are on the same days every year could be a BIG problem area-Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.

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