# Christmas checklist for tour and activity businesses: what to set up and when Published 2026-10-19 by the TicketPa team. Source: https://ticketpa.com/blog/christmas-season-checklist To get a tour or activity business ready for Christmas, set the season up in October, get it in front of guests in November and run it in December. Add your festive time slots, close the days you won't run, write a weather rule into your policy and offer private group bookings for company parties. Then share your dates, send reminders and keep a plan for bad weather. January is for reviews and for reading what sold. This checklist is for small businesses that sell time slots, such as tours, classes, workshops, boat trips, escape rooms and museums. It goes month by month, and each step says where to set it up in TicketPa. Activities are popular presents: in [Deloitte's 2026 US holiday retail survey](https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/about/press-room/deloitte-holiday-spending-set-to-increase.html), half of shoppers plan to give an experience, up from 47% in 2025 and 39% in 2024, and planned shopping peaks in late November, when 77% of shoppers are active. ## The Christmas checklist by month | When | What to do | Where in TicketPa | | -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------- | | October | Add festive time slots and a season schedule | Calendar, the activity's Schedule | | October | Close the days you won't run | Closed dates | | October | Plan staff time off and equipment | Staff, Equipment and spaces | | October | Write a weather rule guests see before they book | The activity's Policies and description | | October and November | Offer private group bookings for company parties | The activity's Pricing and Policies | | November | Share your Christmas dates and set holiday hours | Share, plus your Google profile | | November | Set reminders, last-minute rules and languages | On the day, Policies, Booking page | | December | Cancel or move time slots when the weather turns | The time slot's guest list | | January | Ask for reviews and read what sold | On the day, Reports | You can set up every step today. [Every plan](https://ticketpa.com/pricing) starts with a 30-day free trial of Standard, with no card needed. ## When Christmas bookings come in Christmas brings four kinds of bookings, and each one arrives at a different time: - **Company parties.** A team picks its activity weeks ahead, and bigger groups book earlier. In [Tagvenue's booking data](https://www.tagvenue.com/blog/when-should-you-book-your-christmas-party-venue-in-london/) for London Christmas parties in 2025/2026, groups of under 20 booked a median of 26 days ahead, and groups of 50 to 79 about seven weeks ahead. The person organising it usually compares a few options, so a quick, clear answer helps. - **Presents.** Many people give an activity as a present and book a date for the person they give it to. Gift buying builds through November, and in the US, Deloitte's survey says Thanksgiving week "remains the main event". - **Holiday visitors.** Families with time off and visitors to Christmas markets often book only a few days ahead, or on the day itself. - **January.** Most places go quiet. So the setup work belongs in October, while there is still time for guests to find your dates. If you're reading this later, start with the short list in the next section. ## Starting late? Four steps for this week It isn't too late. Holiday visitors book close to the date, and smaller groups book their parties later than big ones. Start with these four steps: 1. Add your festive time slots. 2. Close the days you won't run. 3. Set your reminder and how close to the start guests can book online. 4. Share a link to each Christmas activity. Not ready to move everything before Christmas? Put one festive activity or your company party offer on TicketPa, share its link, and move the rest in January. Keep anything two activities share, like a staff member, a boat or a room, in one booking system only, because each system only sees its own bookings. ## October: set up the season ### Add festive time slots Decide what you'll run that you don't run the rest of the year: an evening lights walk, a wreath or decoration workshop, a Christmas market tour, a family session in the school holidays. Then add the times before you start promoting them, because guests can't book a date they can't see. For a single extra time, add one time slot by hand. For a run of weeks, add a schedule with a first and a last day, so it starts and stops on its own. If the festive version has its own price, description or photos, create it as a separate activity, and your usual one stays as it is. In TicketPa, you add a one-off time slot in the Calendar with **Add time slot**, and a season on the activity's **Schedule** tab with a **First day** and **Last day**. Schedules create time slots 120 days ahead, so a December schedule added in October fills the calendar straight away. ### Close the days you won't run Pick your closed days now. Most businesses close on 25 December and 1 January. In the UK and much of Europe, 26 December is a public holiday too, and in the Nordic countries, Germany and Poland, Christmas Eve is the main day of Christmas, so many places close that afternoon. In the US, 26 December is a normal working day. Closing these days as [closed dates](https://ticketpa.com/glossary#closed-dates) takes them off your booking page, so nobody books a time you won't run. In TicketPa, go to **Closed dates** and close everything, one location or one activity, for whole days or part of a day. Schedules skip closed dates. If guests had already booked a time you close, you choose to keep those bookings and contact the guests yourself, or to cancel them with a refund and an email. This works on every plan. ### Plan staff time off and equipment December is when your team wants time off too. Add each person's days off before the calendar fills, so you don't find out a week before that nobody can run the Saturday slots. If your activities share equipment or a space, such as a boat, a room or a set of bikes, make sure the extra Christmas times can't book the same thing twice. In TicketPa, you add time off with **Hours** next to each person on the **Staff** page. TicketPa never picks someone who is off, and it takes them off the time slots it had put them on. Check the time slots you chose them for by hand, as those stay as they are. Equipment and spaces are set once, and a time slot shows as full on your booking page while what it uses is taken. Staff on time slots, and equipment and spaces, come with Standard. ### Write a weather rule guests see before they book Snow, ice, storms and short daylight hit outdoor activities hardest in December. Decide now when you call off a time slot, who decides, and what guests get: a new date or a full refund. Put it where guests read it before they book, for example: "If we cancel because of weather or safety, you choose a new date or a full refund." Our [cancellation policy templates](https://ticketpa.com/blog/tour-cancellation-policy-template) have more wording you can copy. In TicketPa, the activity's **Policies** tab sets how long guests can cancel for a full refund and what they get back after that, and the booking page spells it out. Add your weather line to the activity's **Full description** on the **Details** tab, which guests read under **About** before they book. ## October and November: make company parties easy to book Many companies look for a team activity for their Christmas party: a workshop, a tour, a cooking class, an escape room, a boat trip. The person organising it wants three things: a price for the whole group, a date that suits the team, and a way to pay that works for the company. Make all three easy to find. - **Offer a private group price.** One price for the whole group, a [private booking](https://ticketpa.com/glossary#private-booking), which takes the whole time slot so no strangers join. Say how many people it fits. - **Set the group size.** Set the largest booking one guest can make online, and say on the activity's page how to book a bigger group. - **Add times just for groups.** A weekday evening is often free on your calendar and popular for parties. Add it as a one-off time slot when a company asks. - **Let the company pay ahead by card.** When a group books by phone or email, add the booking yourself and send a payment link, so the organiser can pay before the day. ### A reply you can copy When an organiser asks by email, answer the same day with a price, a date and a way to book. Change the parts in brackets: > Thanks for asking about a Christmas activity for your team. For [number] people, we can offer [activity] on [date] at [time], or on [second date] at [time], as a private booking just for your group, for [price] in total. Reply with the date that suits you, and we'll book it and send you a link to pay by card. In TicketPa, a **Private group** price on the activity's **Pricing** tab books a time slot nobody has booked yet and takes all its places, for a group of up to the **Largest group** you set. **Largest booking** on the **Policies** tab limits online bookings. Your team adds the booking with **New booking**, and **Email a payment link** on the booking sends the organiser a link to pay by card. All of this works on every plan. ## November: get your Christmas dates in front of guests ### Share your booking link everywhere Put a link to each Christmas activity wherever guests see you: your Instagram bio and posts, your Google Business Profile, your replies in WhatsApp and your email signature. A link that opens one activity, with its dates ready to pick, saves guests a step compared with a link to your homepage. Our guide to [taking bookings from Instagram, Google and WhatsApp](https://ticketpa.com/blog/booking-link-instagram-whatsapp) shows where each link goes, and the guide to [adding a booking button to your website](https://ticketpa.com/blog/add-booking-button-to-website) covers your own site. In TicketPa, the **Share** page has your booking page link and a link to each published activity, each with a **Copy** button. ### Set your holiday hours on Google Guests check Google before they come, and a profile that shows you open on a day you're closed sends them on a wasted trip. Set special hours for every day you close or change your hours. Google also suggests confirming your hours on official holidays when they stay the same, so your profile doesn't look out of date. On your Google Business Profile, select **Edit profile**, then **Hours**, and next to **Special hours** select **Edit**. [Special hours](https://support.google.com/business/answer/6303076) cover up to six days in a row. For a closure of seven days or more, Google says to mark the business as temporarily closed instead. ### Send reminders, and decide on last-minute bookings In the busiest weeks of the year, guests forget bookings they made a month ago. An automatic reminder the day before, with the time and the meeting point, helps them remember and gives guests who can't come a reason to tell you. Our guide to [reducing no-shows](https://ticketpa.com/blog/how-to-reduce-no-shows-tours-activities) has eight settings that help. Holiday visitors also book late, so check how close to the start you stop taking online bookings. If you can welcome guests who book shortly before the start, a shorter cut-off fills places that would otherwise stay empty. In TicketPa, you choose when reminders go out on the **On the day** page, from 2 hours to a week before. **Stop online bookings** on the activity's **Policies** tab sets the cut-off in minutes. When guests must pay online, it is at least 32 minutes, so there is time to pay. ### Speak your visitors' language Christmas markets and city breaks bring visitors from abroad, and many of them book on their phone the day before. A booking page in their language, with prices and dates in the format they know, is easier to finish. In TicketPa, your booking page, tickets and guest emails come in 16 languages, and each guest sees the page in their browser's language when it's one of the languages you choose. ## December: run the season ### Cancel or move time slots when the weather turns When the forecast turns, decide early and tell guests as soon as you know. A cancellation email the evening before is kinder than a phone call at the meeting point, and an offer of a new date gives guests a reason to keep their plans with you. In TicketPa, **Cancel time slot** on the guest list cancels every booking on it, refunds online payments in full and emails the guests with your note and a **Book another time** button. Cancelling a single time slot comes with Standard; on every plan, closing the date cancels and refunds its booked time slots in the same way. If it can run later the same day or on another date instead, move the whole time slot: every booking moves with it, and guests can get an email with the new time. ### Take last-minute guests Holiday visitors also turn up without booking. If places are left, add them on the guest list, so your numbers stay right for the day and in your reports. In TicketPa, your team adds walk-ins on the time slot's guest list while places are left, and checks guests in by scanning their QR ticket. Check-in and walk-ins come with Standard. ## January: close the season ### Ask for reviews and read what sold - **Ask for reviews while the day is fresh.** A short thank-you email a few hours after the activity, with a link to your Google or Tripadvisor page, reaches guests while they still remember it. - **Read what sold.** Look at December in your reports: which festive times filled, which stayed half empty, and what the company parties were worth. Write down what to change next Christmas while you still remember. In TicketPa, review requests go out 2 to 6 hours after a time slot ends once you add your review link on the **On the day** page, and **Reports** shows bookings, guests, revenue and places taken for any dates you pick. Both come with Standard. ## Set up your Christmas season in TicketPa today TicketPa is booking software for small businesses that sell time slots, such as tours, classes and workshops. For Christmas, you can add festive time slots and season schedules, close holidays on your booking page, take private group bookings for company parties, and cancel or move a whole time slot with an email to every guest. - **On every plan:** one-off time slots and season schedules, closed dates that cancel and refund booked times for you, private group prices, payment links, reminders and a booking page in 16 languages. - **With Standard:** cancelling a single time slot, check-in and walk-ins, review requests, reports, staff on time slots, and equipment and spaces. [Every plan](https://ticketpa.com/pricing) starts with a 30-day free trial of Standard, with no card needed. You can also see [every feature](https://ticketpa.com/features), or how it works for [tours](https://ticketpa.com/tour-booking-software), [workshops](https://ticketpa.com/workshop-booking-software) and [classes](https://ticketpa.com/class-booking-software). ## Frequently asked questions ### When should I open bookings for Christmas activities? Open them in October. Company parties are booked weeks ahead, and gift buying builds through November, so dates added in October are on your booking page before most people start looking. Add the time slots first, then promote them, because guests can't book a date they can't see. ### Is it too late to set up Christmas bookings in December? No. Holiday visitors book close to the date, and smaller groups book their parties later than big ones. Add your festive time slots, close the days you won't run, set your reminders and your booking cut-off, and share a link to each activity. You can start with one activity and move the rest in January. ### How far ahead do companies book Christmas parties? Bigger groups book earlier. In Tagvenue's booking data for London Christmas parties in 2025/2026, groups of under 20 booked a median of 26 days ahead, groups of 20 to 49 about six weeks ahead, and groups of 80 or more about eight weeks ahead. So have your party offer ready by early November. ### How do I take bookings for company Christmas parties? Offer a private group price, so the team gets the whole time slot, and say how many people it fits. Set the largest online booking on your activity, and tell bigger groups how to contact you. When a company asks by email, reply the same day with a price and two dates, then add the booking and send a payment link. ### Which days should I close over Christmas? It depends on your country and your guests. Most businesses close on 25 December and 1 January. In the UK and much of Europe, 26 December is a public holiday too, and in the Nordic countries, Germany and Poland, Christmas Eve is the main day. In the US, 26 December is a normal working day. Close the days on your booking page and on Google. ### What should I do if snow or a storm cancels a tour? Decide early and tell guests as soon as you know. Cancel the time slot, give a full refund or offer a new date, and send every guest an email with a short note. Put the rule where guests read it before they book, so everyone knows what happens when the weather decides for you. ### Should I charge more for Christmas time slots? You can, if guests see the price before they book. A festive activity with its own price, such as an evening lights walk, is clearer than raising the price of your usual tour for a few weeks. Our [tour price calculator](https://ticketpa.com/tour-price-calculator) helps you work out a price that covers your costs, and [seasonal pricing](https://ticketpa.com/glossary#seasonal-pricing) is explained in our glossary.