Holiday out of office message examples for every season
A good holiday out of office message says which holiday you're off for, the date you're back, and who to contact if something can't wait. Keep it to three or four short lines, match the tone to who emails you most (clients get the professional version), and set the end date so it switches off on its own. Copy any of the 25 examples below for Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year and swap in your details.
Your holiday auto-reply goes to everyone who emails you while you're away: clients, prospects, your boss. A clear one saves a pile of "are you around?" follow-ups. A vague one leaves people guessing until January.
Below are 25 holiday out of office messages, grouped by holiday and tone, each with a copy button. The last section covers the other side, the one most lists skip: what a sales team should do when a prospect's holiday auto-reply lands in the middle of a Q4 campaign. Away for something other than a holiday? Our out of office message generator builds one from your dates, tone and backup contact.
Revbound spots every out-of-office reply and writes back when the lead returns.
Try it free for 3 days3 days free, every featureWhat a good holiday out of office message includes
Every message below follows the same short recipe. Get these five parts right and the tone is the only thing left to choose.
Thanks for your email. I'm out of the office for Thanksgiving and back on Monday, [date].
For anything urgent, please contact [name] at [email].
Happy Thanksgiving,
[Your name]
- A short thank-youOne line so the reply doesn't read as a door shut in their face
- The holidayNaming it tells people why you're away and roughly how long
- Your return dateThe single most useful line. Use the day and the date
- A backup contactName and email of the person covering, so urgent things still move
- A warm closeOptional, but it costs nothing in the holiday season
Two things to leave out. Don't promise a reply "as soon as possible" if you'll come back to a full inbox, and don't share personal plans or your home phone number in an auto-reply that strangers and spammers will also receive.
| Holiday | When it falls | Turn your auto-reply on |
|---|---|---|
| Thanksgiving (US) | Fourth Thursday of November | End of Wednesday if you take Thursday and Friday off |
| Christmas | 25 December | Your last working day before the break |
| New Year | 1 January | Leave it on through New Year's Day if you're off between the holidays |
Set the end date to your last day off, so the reply switches itself off before you're back.
How do you put in your out of office message?
In Gmail, open Settings, choose See all settings, and on the General tab scroll to Vacation responder. Switch it on, fill in the first day, last day, subject and message, then click Save Changes at the bottom. Google's help page for the vacation responder notes that the reply starts at 12:00 AM on the start date and ends at 11:59 PM on the end date. Our step-by-step Gmail auto reply guide also covers the phone apps and filters that reply to specific senders.
In Outlook on the web, go to Settings, then Account, then Automatic replies. Turn the toggle on, tick Send replies only during a time period, add your dates and message, and save. Work accounts can set a separate reply for people outside the company, which Microsoft's automatic replies guide covers step by step.
Thanksgiving out of office messages
Thanksgiving is a short break, so the message can be short too. Most people only need to know you're off Thursday and Friday and back on Monday.
Professional
Subject: Out of office for Thanksgiving
Hi, thanks for your email. I'm out of the office for Thanksgiving from [start date] and back on [return date], and I won't be checking email while I'm away.
For anything urgent, please contact [name] at [email]. I'll reply to everything else when I'm back.
Thank you for your message. Our office is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on [Thursday date] and [Friday date]. We reopen on [Monday date] and will answer emails in the order they arrived.
If this can't wait, [name] is covering at [email or phone].
Short
Out for Thanksgiving, back on [return date]. For urgent requests, email [name] at [email].
I'm off for the Thanksgiving break and back on [day]. Your email will be waiting for me.
Warm
Thanks for writing. I'm taking a few days off for Thanksgiving to spend time with family, and I'll be back on [return date].
If you need help before then, [name] at [email] can take care of you. I hope you get some time off too.
Happy Thanksgiving! I'm away from my desk until [return date] and grateful for the break. I'll reply as soon as I've caught up.
If it's urgent, please reach [name] at [email].
Christmas out of office messages
The Christmas break is longer, and for many people it runs straight into New Year. Say whether you'll check email at all, because a week of silence reads very differently from "slower replies".
Subject: Out of office until [return date]
Thank you for your email. I'm out of the office for the Christmas holidays from [start date] to [end date], with no access to email. I'll respond after I return on [return date].
For urgent matters, please contact [name] at [email].
Thank you for contacting [company]. Our offices are closed from [start date] to [end date] for the holidays, and we reopen on [return date].
Requests sent during the closure will be handled in the order we received them. For urgent account issues, email [support address].
Thanks for your note. I'm away for Christmas and back on [return date].
Your account is in good hands: [name] is covering for me and can be reached at [email]. Wishing you a restful holiday.
Away for Christmas, back on [return date]. Merry Christmas!
Thanks for your email. I'm out for the holidays until [return date] and offline for most of that time.
If something comes up that can't wait, [name] at [email] can help. Happy holidays, and see you in the new year.
I'm spending the holidays with family and won't see your email until [return date]. When I'm back, I'll work through my inbox and get back to you.
Until then, I hope your holidays are calm and your inbox is quieter than mine.
I'm out of the office over Christmas, from [start date] to [end date]. I'll check email once a day for anything urgent, so expect slower replies.
Everything else gets my full attention when I'm back on [return date].
New Year out of office messages
If you're off from Christmas through New Year's Day, one message can cover both. Use a New Year version when you're only out for the day itself, or when your Christmas reply has already ended.
Thank you for your email. I'm out of the office for the New Year holiday and back on [return date]. I'll reply after I return.
If your message is urgent, please contact [name] at [email].
Out for New Year's, back on [return date]. Happy New Year!
I'm away for the holidays from [start date] and back in the office on [return date].
Please reach out to [name] at [email] for anything that can't wait until then. Wishing you a good start to the year.
Happy New Year! I'm out until [return date] and coming back with a clean slate. I'll read every message, but if yours is time-sensitive, [name] at [email] is around this week.
Thanks for reaching out. Our team is off for New Year's Day and back on [return date].
We'll start the year with the requests that came in over the break, in the order they arrived.
Thanks for your email. I'm out until [return date] for the New Year.
If you'd like to get time on the calendar for January, you can pick a slot here: [booking link]. Otherwise I'll be in touch when I'm back.
Funny holiday out of office messages
Funny works with colleagues and long-time clients. Skip it for anyone who might be emailing about a problem, because a joke on top of a complaint lands badly. Keep the return date and backup contact in every version.
I'm out of the office for Thanksgiving, most likely in a food coma. I'll be back on [return date], slower but grateful. For anything urgent, contact [name], who skipped dessert.
Your email has arrived safely. I, on the other hand, am somewhere between the couch and the leftovers until [return date].
I'm away for Christmas, testing whether one person can watch every holiday movie in a single week. Back on [return date]. Urgent? [name] at [email] is still in work mode.
Out of the office until [return date]. I left my laptop at work so I can't be tempted. Your email will still be here when I get back, and so will I, eventually.
I'm out for the holidays until [return date]. If your email is urgent, please contact [name] at [email]. If it's about the office party photos, please don't.
New year, same inbox. I'm out until [return date] and will answer your email when I'm back, probably with a brand new resolution about inbox zero.
Running cold email this Q4? Revbound spots out-of-office replies and writes back when the lead returns.
Try it free for 3 daysFor sales teams: what to do when a prospect's holiday auto-reply comes back
If you send cold email in November and December, holiday auto-replies will pile up in your inbox. Each one is a reply from a real person's mailbox, and many of them tell you when that person will be reading email again.
Treat them as a scheduling note. The prospect hasn't said no. They've told you when to try again.
Pause the sequence for that lead and write back a day or two after they're back
Hold until the first full working week after the holiday, then send one short note
Only email the backup if your message is clearly their job, and say who pointed you there
Stop the sequence and look for whoever took over the role
Pause the sequence for that lead
Your next step was probably scheduled for a few days from now, which means it lands in an inbox nobody is reading. Worse, it piles on top of the backlog the prospect returns to. Stop the sequence for anyone whose auto-reply comes back, and check that your sending tool's stop-on-reply setting treats auto-replies the way you expect.
Write back after they return, in the same thread
Wait a day or two after the return date. The first morning back is spent on internal email and fires, and your note is easy to skip. Reply in the same thread so your original email sits right underneath, keep it shorter than the first email, and give one easy question to answer.
Hi [first name], hope the Thanksgiving break was a good one.
Picking this back up now that you're back. Is [one-line offer] worth a look before the year wraps up, or better left for January?
Hi [first name], happy New Year.
I reached out before the break about [problem you solve]. If it's on the list for this year, would a short call in the next couple of weeks make sense?
Hi [backup name], [prospect name]'s out-of-office reply mentioned you're covering while they're away.
This isn't urgent, so no need to act before they're back. In short: [one-line offer]. If it's more your area than theirs, I'm happy to talk with you directly.
For the rest of the sequence, our guide to cold email follow up timing and templates covers what to send after this first note and when to stop.
Should you pause cold email over the holidays?
Slow down rather than stop. Avoid launching new campaigns or sending first touches in Thanksgiving week and in the stretch from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day, when many prospects are away and real replies are hard to get. The weeks in between are normal working weeks.
Use the quiet days to clean lists and line up first touches for the first full week of January. If you run several sending tools for different clients, set the pause in each one, because a single campaign left running is the one that sends into empty inboxes. Our comparison of the best cold email software covers how the main senders handle campaigns and schedules.
Tracking return dates by hand works for a handful of replies. In Q4, across several sequencers and clients, they slip. Revbound pulls replies from Instantly, Smartlead, Email Bison, PlusVibe, SendKit and ArcSend into one inbox and sorts each one with AI, so out-of-office replies are labeled apart from interested leads. Its out-of-office follow-up writes back when the lead returns, and its referral follow-up contacts the person a lead points you to. Plans and the free trial are on the Revbound pricing page.
FAQ
What is a good out-of-office message for the festive season?
A good festive season out-of-office message thanks the sender, names the holiday, gives the date you're back and names a colleague to contact for anything urgent. Keep it to three or four lines. A short seasonal wish such as "Happy holidays" at the end is enough warmth for most readers.
How do you put in your out of office message?
In Gmail, go to Settings, See all settings, then the General tab, switch on Vacation responder, add the dates, subject and message, and click Save Changes. In Outlook on the web, go to Settings, Account, Automatic replies, turn the toggle on, set the time period and message, and save. Always set an end date so the reply switches off by itself.
How do I send a holiday message?
For a holiday greeting to clients or colleagues, write a short personal note, send it a week or two before the break, and avoid a sales pitch. For an automatic holiday reply, use the out-of-office or vacation responder setting in your email tool and set it to run only for the days you are away.
How do I write an email to my manager requesting PTO?
Put the dates in the subject line, for example "Time off request: [dates]". In the email, give the exact days, say who will cover your work and what you'll finish before you leave, and ask your manager to confirm. Send it early, because holiday weeks fill up fast in most teams.
When should you turn on a holiday out of office message?
Turn it on at the end of your last working day before the holiday and set the end date to your last day off. For Thanksgiving in the US that is usually Wednesday evening if you take Thursday and Friday off. For Christmas, use your last working day before the break.
Should I pause cold email over the holidays?
Slow down rather than stop. Avoid launching new campaigns or sending first touches in Thanksgiving week and between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day, when many prospects are away and real replies are hard to get. Use that time to clean lists and plan first touches for the first full week of January.
What should I do when a prospect sends a holiday auto-reply?
Pause the sequence for that prospect and note the return date from the auto-reply. Write back in the same thread a day or two after they return, with a short note and one easy question. If the auto-reply names a colleague, only contact them when your message clearly falls under their job.