Out of Office Message for Holiday Closures: Voicemail, Text and Google Hours Templates
It’s 7:15 on the Friday after Thanksgiving. A homeowner with a kitchen drain backing up into the sink calls your shop, hears a ring, then a greeting recorded in March that says you’re open Monday through Friday. They leave a message and wait. By 9:00 they’ve booked someone else, because nothing told them you were closed until Monday.
An out of office message for holiday closures is four small jobs, and the voicemail is only one of them. A caller can reach you by phone, by text, by email, or by looking you up on Google, and each of those needs to say the same thing. This page is the copy-paste pack for all four, written for a service shop and sized to set up in under an hour.
What an out of office message for holiday closures has to say
Office-worker templates are written for someone whose inbox can wait. Your callers are different: some of them have water on the floor. Every version of your holiday closure message, on every channel, needs the same four facts.
- The exact dates you’re closed. “Closed Thursday, November 26 and Friday, November 27” beats “closed for the holiday.” People call during the days around a holiday precisely because they aren’t sure.
- The day and clock time you reopen. “Back Monday at 7:30am” is something a customer can plan around. “After the holiday” is not.
- What to do if it can’t wait. Either a number someone will answer, or a plain statement that you don’t run emergency service and who to call instead.
- What to leave or send. Name, address, and one line on the problem, so you can sort messages by urgency on the morning you reopen.
Leave out the long seasonal wishes at the front. One warm line at the end is plenty, and it keeps the facts inside the first ten seconds.
Holiday closure message templates for voicemail
These three cover the closures most shops take between November and January. Each reads in under 20 seconds. If you need night, weekend, storm or year-round variants, they’re in our after-hours, holiday and emergency voicemail greetings, and the daytime main-line recordings are in the business voicemail greeting scripts.
1. Thanksgiving, two days closed
“Thanks for calling [Company]. We’re closed Thursday, November 26 and Friday, November 27 for Thanksgiving, and we reopen Monday at [time]. If this can’t wait, call [on-call number]. Otherwise leave your name, address, and what’s going on, and you’ll hear from us Monday morning. Happy Thanksgiving.”
2. Christmas through New Year’s, reduced hours
“You’ve reached [Company]. From December 24 through January 1 we’re on holiday hours: open [days] from [time] to [time], closed December 25 and January 1. For an emergency on a day we’re closed, call [on-call number]. Leave your name and address and we’ll call you back on our next open day.”
3. Single-day closure
“Thanks for calling [Company]. We’re closed today, [day and date], for [holiday] and back tomorrow at [time]. Leave your name, address, and a short description of the problem, and we’ll call you first thing when we open at [time].”
Record all three in one sitting in early November and schedule both the switch on and the switch back at the same time. The switch back is the one that gets forgotten.
Holiday auto reply text and email templates
Plenty of customers won’t leave a voicemail at all. They’ll text the number they just called, reply to an old appointment reminder, or email the address on your invoice. Each of those needs its own closed-for-the-holiday message.
Text replies
4. Auto-reply to an inbound text
“[Company] is closed [dates] for [holiday] and reopens [day] at [time]. Emergency? Call [on-call number]. Otherwise reply with your address and the problem and we’ll schedule you [day] morning.”
5. Missed-call text back during the closure
“Sorry we missed your call. [Company] is closed for [holiday] until [day] at [time]. Reply with your name, address, and what’s happening and you’re on our list for [day]. Urgent? Call [on-call number].”
6. Heads-up to customers with open jobs, sent a week ahead
“Hi [first name], [Company] here. We’ll be closed [dates] for [holiday]. Your [appointment / estimate / part order] is still set for [date]. Need anything before we close? Reply here or call [number] by [last open day].”
Template 5 only works if a text actually goes out when a call is missed. If you haven’t set that up, our guide to missed call text back walks through how it works and what to say.
Keep texts to people who contacted you first or who already agreed to hear from you by text, and honor opt-out replies like STOP. Text messaging rules vary and this isn’t legal advice, so check your own obligations before sending anything in bulk.
Email auto-replies
7. Standard email out-of-office
Subject: Closed [dates] for [holiday]
Thanks for your email. [Company] is closed [dates] and reopens [day] at [time]. We’ll reply to messages in the order they arrived.
If you have an emergency, call [on-call number]. To get on the schedule for [day], reply with your address and a short description of the problem.
8. Email out-of-office with no emergency service
Subject: Closed [dates] for [holiday]
Thanks for reaching out. Our office is closed [dates] and we don’t offer emergency service during the break. For a gas smell, flooding near electrical, or any safety problem, call 911 or your utility.
For everything else, we’ll reply on [day]. Include your address and phone number and we’ll call to book you.
Set the email auto-reply to send once per sender. A customer who emails three photos shouldn’t get the same closure notice three times.
The emergency line version of a closed for the holiday message
This is the part office templates skip, and it’s the part that decides whether a closure costs you customers. Pick the version that matches what you really offer. A promised on-call number that rolls to another voicemail is worse than no number.
9. On-call tech is covering
“[Company] is closed for [holiday], but [name or ‘our on-call tech’] is covering emergencies. For no heat, an active leak, or a sewer backup, press [key] or call [number] and you’ll get a call back within [window]. For anything else, leave your name and address and we’ll call [day].”
10. No emergency service during the break
“[Company] is closed [dates] for [holiday] and we are not running emergency service. If you smell gas or a carbon monoxide alarm is sounding, leave the building and call 911. For urgent repairs, we recommend calling [partner company or ‘a 24-hour provider’]. We reopen [day] at [time].”
11. Emergency-only skeleton crew
“Thanks for calling [Company]. Through [date] we’re running emergency calls only, with normal scheduling back on [day]. If you have [no heat / no water / an active leak], stay on the line or call [number]. For estimates and routine service, leave a message and we’ll book you starting [day].”
Three checks before you record any of these:
- Call the on-call number yourself from a different phone. Confirm a person answers.
- Tell the on-call tech which dates they hold the phone, in writing.
- Decide what counts as an emergency, and say it in the greeting. “No heat” is clearer than “urgent issues.”
The safety wording in template 10 points callers to emergency services. It isn’t safety or medical advice, so confirm the wording with your utility or insurance carrier before recording. If holiday coverage is the real gap, the options are laid out in our after-hours answering service guide.
Set Google Business Profile special hours before you record anything
For a lot of customers the first out-of-office notice they see isn’t a message at all. It’s the hours line on your Google listing. If it says “Open” on Christmas morning, people drive over or call, and both end badly.
Google’s special hours instructions for Business Profile cover the current click path. In short:
- Open your Business Profile while signed in to the account that manages it.
- Go to the hours section of the profile editor and find the special or holiday hours option.
- Add each date you’ll be closed and mark it closed. For half days, enter the shortened hours.
- Save, then search for your business from a phone and confirm the holiday shows the hours you entered.
Do this for every closure date, including the ones where you only close early. Special hours apply to the date you enter, so they don’t overwrite your regular hours and don’t need to be undone later. If your listing needs more than a holiday tidy-up, work through the Google Business Profile optimization checklist while you’re in there.
Dates to put on the calendar this season
Federal dates below are from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management federal holiday schedule. Your shop doesn’t have to follow them, but your suppliers, permit offices and banks mostly will.
| Holiday | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| Veterans Day | November 11, 2026 | Wednesday |
| Thanksgiving | November 26, 2026 | Thursday |
| Christmas Day | December 25, 2026 | Friday |
| New Year’s Day | January 1, 2027 | Friday |
Christmas and New Year’s both land on a Friday this season, which makes two three-day weekends back to back. Decide now whether you’re open on December 26 and January 2, because customers will assume one way or the other.
A workable order for the week before each closure:
- Set Google special hours.
- Record and schedule the voicemail greeting, both directions.
- Turn on the text and email auto-replies with start and end dates.
- Send the heads-up text to customers with open jobs.
- Confirm on-call coverage and test the number.
Frequently asked
Q: What should an out of office message for holiday closures include? A: The exact dates you’re closed, the day and time you reopen, what to do in an emergency, and what details to leave. Keep it under 20 seconds on voicemail and under 300 characters by text.
Q: How far ahead should I post a holiday closure message? A: Set Google special hours two to three weeks ahead and send the customer heads-up about a week before. Switch the voicemail and auto-replies at close on your last open day, not earlier, or callers will think you’re already gone.
Q: Should a holiday voicemail greeting mention the emergency number? A: Only if someone answers it. If nobody is on call, say plainly that you don’t run emergency service during the break and point callers to 911 or the utility for safety problems.
Q: Do I need a different message for each holiday? A: Yes, because the dates and reopening time change. The wording can stay the same. Save the templates above with blanks and re-record only the dates.
Q: Is an out-of-office email enough for a service business? A: No. Most urgent contacts come by phone or text, and many people check your Google listing first. Cover all four: voicemail, text, email and Google hours.
Take the holiday without sending callers to a recording
Even a good closure message asks the customer to wait, and the ones with a real problem won’t. InstaNexus AI answers calls 24/7, asks your intake questions, and sends you a text and email summary with the caller’s details when the call ends. Urgent calls are warm-transferred to whoever is on your holiday schedule, and bookings respect your business hours and blackout dates, so nobody gets scheduled onto a day you’re closed.
See how that compares with a live service in our AI receptionist vs answering service guide, or look at what the AI receptionist handles on a call.