This festival marketing calendar lists every key date from November 2026 to January 2027 for India, the US and the UK, with a recommended "publish by" date and a "start promoting" date for each. The short version: Diwali is on Sunday 8 November, Black Friday on Friday 27 November, Christmas on Friday 25 December and Republic Day on Tuesday 26 January 2027. Pages for the November events should already be in progress.
The "publish by" and "start promoting" columns are our recommendations, not rules. Search engines need time to find and recrawl a page, and shoppers start researching before the day itself, so earlier is safer.
Date notes before you plan
- Indian festival dates can vary by a day by region. Govardhan Puja and Bhai Dooj fall between 9 and 11 November 2026 depending on the source, and some calendars list Makar Sankranti on 14 January instead of 15 January. Check your local panchang before printing dates.
- Many UK and US retailers start Black Friday offers in early November, well before the day.
- All dates below were checked on 26 October 2026.
November 2026 calendar
| Date | Event | Market | Publish by (recommended) | Start promoting (recommended) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 6 Nov | Dhanteras | India | Now (overdue if not live) | Now |
| Sun 8 Nov | Diwali (Lakshmi Puja) | India | Now (overdue if not live) | Now |
| 9 to 11 Nov | Govardhan Puja, Bhai Dooj | India | 1 Nov | 3 Nov |
| 13 to 16 Nov | Chhath Puja (main day Sun 15 Nov) | India | 3 Nov | 6 Nov |
| Tue 24 Nov | Guru Nanak Jayanti | India | 10 Nov | 14 Nov |
| Thu 26 Nov | Thanksgiving | US | 5 Nov | 12 Nov |
| Fri 27 Nov | Black Friday | US, UK, India | 2 Nov | 5 Nov |
| Mon 30 Nov | Cyber Monday | US, UK, India | 2 Nov | 20 Nov |
What to prepare in November
- Diwali and Dhanteras: one evergreen offer page, Product and Offer markup, special hours in Google Business Profile and tracked WhatsApp links. The full list is in the Diwali marketing SEO checklist.
- Bhai Dooj: gift ideas for brothers and sisters, with delivery cut-off dates.
- Chhath Puja: puja samagri, travel, food and regional content, mainly relevant for Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and diaspora audiences.
- Guru Nanak Jayanti: greetings, community events and local store hours.
- Thanksgiving: recipes, hosting guides and early-deal pages for US audiences.
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday: an evergreen
/black-fridaypage and a/cyber-mondaysection. See the Black Friday landing page guide.
December 2026 calendar
| Date | Event | Market | Publish by (recommended) | Start promoting (recommended) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 25 Dec | Christmas | US, UK, India | 20 Nov | 1 Dec |
| Sat 26 Dec | Boxing Day | UK | 1 Dec | 14 Dec |
What to prepare in December
- Christmas gift guides by recipient and price: "gifts for dad under £30", "secret santa gifts under ₹500", "stocking stuffers under $20".
- A shipping cut-off page with last order dates per delivery method and region. Update it as carriers publish their dates.
- Boxing Day: a UK sale page at a permanent URL such as
/boxing-day-sale, live before Christmas so it can be found when people search on 26 December. - Special holiday hours for shops in Google Business Profile for 24, 25, 26 and 31 December.
January 2027 calendar
| Date | Event | Market | Publish by (recommended) | Start promoting (recommended) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 1 Jan | New Year's Day | US, UK, India | 10 Dec | 20 Dec |
| Wed 13 Jan | Lohri | India | 28 Dec | 3 Jan |
| Fri 15 Jan | Makar Sankranti, Thai Pongal (some list 14 Jan) | India | 28 Dec | 3 Jan |
| Tue 26 Jan | Republic Day | India | 10 Jan | 15 Jan |
What to prepare in January
- New Year: "new year" offers, planning content and goal-setting guides. Year-in-review posts work well for service businesses.
- Lohri, Makar Sankranti and Pongal: regional pages with local-language keywords (Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, as relevant to your customers), recipes, kite and festive product lists.
- Republic Day: sale pages for Indian stores and patriotic social content. Keep claims and imagery respectful of official symbols.
How to work back from each date
A simple rule for each event on the calendar:
- Research: four to five weeks before. Run a seed such as "christmas gifts for" or "pongal recipes" through the autocomplete suggestions tool to see real phrases people type. It uses Google autocomplete, so it shows phrases, not search volumes.
- Build: three to four weeks before. Write the page, then create the title, description and Open Graph tags with the meta tags generator.
- Mark up: add Product and Offer or LocalBusiness JSON-LD with the schema markup generator where it fits the page.
- Get it found: add the URL to your XML sitemap (the XML sitemap generator can produce one if your platform does not) and link to the page from your home page or menu.
- Promote: two weeks before. Share links tagged with the UTM campaign builder on email, WhatsApp and social.
- After the event: keep the page live, update it with an "ended" message and links to current offers, and reuse the URL next year.
Choosing which festivals to target
You do not need a page for every date. Use three questions to decide:
| Question | If yes | If no |
|---|---|---|
| Do your customers celebrate or shop for it? | Plan a page or a section | Skip it, or post on social only |
| Do you have a real offer, product or useful guide for it? | Build a dedicated page | Add a short section to an existing page |
| Can you publish it by the recommended date? | Go ahead | Focus on the next event instead |
A small Indian sweets shop might focus on Dhanteras, Diwali, Bhai Dooj and Lohri. A UK fashion store might focus on Black Friday, Christmas and Boxing Day. A US software company might only run Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Thin pages created only to catch festival keywords rarely help. Google's guidance on helpful content asks whether a page is written for people first, and a page with no real offer or information fails that test.
Next steps
- Mark the dates relevant to your audience in your team calendar, with the publish-by and promote dates beside them.
- Finish Dhanteras and Diwali pages this week if they are not live.
- Create or reclaim evergreen URLs for Black Friday, Christmas and Boxing Day.
- Run keyword research for December and January events in early November.
- Set special holiday hours in Google Business Profile for each date your shop hours change.
- After each event, update the page rather than deleting it.
