President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday making Christmas Eve an official federal holiday this year. Calls to make Juneteenth a June 19 federal holiday surged this summer as Black Lives Matter protests swept the country and many organizations gave their workers a day off. The day is already recognized by 47 states and the District of Columbia. It marks the arrival of Union soldiers in Galveston, Texas, sharing the news of the abolition of slavery. With Christmas Eve, federal employees have a four-day weekend to celebrate. It was previously assumed that the president would give federal employees a half-day off on Thursday, as President Obama and President Clinton did when Christmas fell on a Friday. The 2021 legislation that created the party, with a Democrat in the White House and Democrats controlling both houses of Congress, received overwhelming bipartisan support. There is no guarantee that presidents will give federal employees more free time around Christmas. Christmas Day is a federal holiday, but December 24 is not. The decision rests with the president, and everyone has handled it differently.

On June 15, the Senate — now split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris able to break a tie — unanimously approved June 19 as a new federal holiday. The next day, the House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 415 to 14, with all Democrats and 195 Republicans voting yes. Biden, a Democrat, signed it on June 17. Christmas Eve will be considered a federal holiday in the United States this year, according to a new executive order signed by President Trump. Although Christmas Day is considered one of the 10 federal holidays by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Christmas Eve has not generally been designated as such. However, the president can issue an executive order to give federal employees the day off. After similar announcements in 2018 and 2019, the 2020 parade was the third time Trump chose to designate Christmas Eve as a federal holiday. The Democratic-led legislation that created the holiday and was introduced in February 2021 received overwhelming bipartisan support.

Only Congress has the power to create a federal holiday, but Trump could help introduce a measure lawmakers can pass. At a rally Saturday in Georgia involving two Republican senators on the runoff, Trump warned that his political opponents still want to erase the holiday. Officially, there are only 10 U.S. federal holidays, but presidents can sign executive orders that grant days off to federal employees. President Trump issued an executive order declaring Thursday, December 24, 2020 a federal holiday. Employees of the Ministry of the Interior will be exempted from duty on December 24, 2020, with the exception of employees who are required to report for national security, defense or other public needs. Previously scheduled vacation or other forms of paid leave, vacation or credited hours on December 24 will not be charged. On the day Juneteenth became a federal holiday, two black pro-Donald Trump activists, known as Diamond and Silk, who have 2.3 million followers on Facebook, posted this statement: It took many years for Juneteenth to become a holiday. But aside from the rhetoric of « atrocities » and the fact that the holiday is not just for blacks, his message ignores two points. Trump is not the first president to grant a day off the days before or after the Christmas holidays. He joined Franklin Roosevelt as one of two sitting presidents to relieve a full eight-hour workday.

After the latest executive order that will mark the president`s last Christmas in the White House, many wondered why he didn`t make Election Day a federal holiday. President Trump makes Christmas Eve a federal holiday this year Trump was a big supporter of holiday celebration, claiming before taking office that politically correct Democrats were waging a « war on Christmas. » All questions regarding the federal holiday of December 24 should be directed to your personnel office.