Picture a caterer in Leeds who takes Christmas Eve orders for collection on Thursday 24 December. On Google Maps the listing still shows a normal Thursday. A customer searches for the collection time, calls after the kitchen has shut and leaves a one-star review. The kitchen did not fail and neither did the delivery. The listing simply never caught up with the plan.
The symptom: the listing shows one timetable, you run another
The problem has two faces: the customer at a closed door and the review that follows. A sign on the door or a post on social media does not change what Google shows, because the hours on a listing are a record of their own. Anyone who finds your business on Google Maps reads that record, not your Instagram account.
The dates for this season, worked out with a calendar: 24 December 2026 is a Thursday, 25 December is a Friday, 26 December is a Saturday, 31 December is a Thursday and 1 January 2027 is a Friday. For England and Wales, a council page lists Friday 25 December, Monday 28 December (the Boxing Day substitute day) and Friday 1 January as bank holidays. Scotland and Northern Ireland follow different dates, so check gov.uk before you enter anything. Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are not bank holidays, which means the hours on those days are yours to decide.
One clarification about Guardian: it does not enter your hours. It is an optional LocalEdge add-on that watches the listing and tells you when a value changes. Loading the dates stays a manual job.
Three causes that come back every December
All three are problems of timing, not carelessness: the hours go in late, the review takes longer than expected, or someone else changes the data.
Cause 1: the special hours never appear
According to Google’s help pages, special hours only show if the main hours are set as open with main hours. If you picked another option, you can enter the dates and still see nothing published.
Cause 2: the edit takes longer than planned
Google says it usually reviews edits to a verified profile in about 10 minutes, although in some cases it can take up to 30 days. An edit made on Monday 21 December may not be live by Friday 25 December. Load the dates in November and check the result.
Cause 3: a suggested edit goes live without you seeing it
In September 2026 Google updated its help page: the owner is notified of certain suggested edits and has 4 days to accept or reject them. After that, Google may publish an edit backed by public information (Search Engine Roundtable, 23/09/2026). A worked example, not a real case: a notice that arrives on Thursday 31 December runs out on Monday 4 January, in the middle of the break.
Diagnosis: what to look at on your phone before changing anything
Start with what the customer sees. Five checks, in this order:
- Search for your business on your phone, signed out of your account, and read the hours shown for 24, 25, 28 and 31 December and 1 January.
- Open the profile editor and check the status of recent edits: accepted, pending or rejected.
- Look in your email and notifications for suggested-edit notices and note their 4-day deadline.
- Compare the hours on the listing with your website, your social media and the answers your team gives by phone.
- Write down who reads the notices during the break, so the deadline does not run with nobody watching.
The fix: enter the dates and plan the long closure
The fix takes a few steps, and the second one decides whether the rest will show. Open the profile editor and go to the hours section. Check that the main hours are set as open with main hours. Next to special hours, select the edit icon. Add each date, or review the ones Google suggests, and untick closed if you are open that day. If you work two sessions in one day, use the option to add more hours. Save, then check the result on your phone.
If you close from Thursday 24 December to Monday 4 January, that is 12 days in a row. Google provides special hours for temporary changes and closures of up to 6 consecutive days, so a closure this long falls outside that limit. Google’s help has a separate page on marking a business as closed; read it before you enter the dates.
Prevention: watch the listing through the whole season
Once the listing is right, the remaining risk is a change you did not make. Guardian, an optional LocalEdge add-on, checks the profile through the Google API every hour and alerts you within the hour with the field, the old value, the new value and a Fix Now button. LocalEdge Lite includes a 15-day Guardian trial: started on 14 December, it runs to 29 December.
If you manage several catering or events businesses, keep a list of dates per listing. The LocalEdge fleet panel for agencies brings the listings together in one place and lets you switch on Guardian in bulk. For the wider picture of the profile, read our complete guide to optimising your Google Business Profile in the UK.
Your next concrete step: this week, search for your business on your phone and write down the hours Google shows for 24 December. To check the rest of the profile at no cost, try LocalEdge Lite free, no card needed, and read your GBP Score.
