December 2026 long weekend in Catalonia: which days are public holidays

In 2026 the only public holiday of the December bridge in Catalonia is Tuesday 8 December (the Immaculate Conception). 6 December, Constitution Day, falls on a Sunday and is not in Catalonia's holiday calendar, and Monday the 7th is a working day: to get 4 days in a row, Saturday 5 to Tuesday 8 December, you have to take Monday the 7th off.

Which days are public holidays in Catalonia in December 2026?

Three: Tuesday 8 (Immaculate Conception), Friday 25 (Christmas Day) and Saturday 26 (Sant Esteve, St Stephen's Day). In Aran, 26 December is not a holiday: the Festa d'Aran on 17 June replaces it.

Is 6 December 2026 a public holiday in Catalonia?

No. Constitution Day falls on a Sunday, and the order that sets Catalonia's 2026 holiday calendar neither includes it nor moves it to the Monday. Of the year's twelve holidays, the only one that week is Tuesday the 8th.

When a national holiday falls on a Sunday, each autonomous community can give the following Monday off or add a holiday of its own to its calendar instead. Catalonia has not put Monday the 7th in its calendar.

Is 7 December a holiday in Catalonia?

Not across Catalonia: it is an ordinary working Monday. It is a local holiday in 43 towns, such as Castelldefels, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Amposta or Bellver de Cerdanya, according to Order EMT/208/2025 (DOGC, 17 December 2025). A few villages within other municipalities, such as Escaladei and Escart, have the day off too. Barcelona is not one of them: its 2026 local holidays are 25 May and 24 September.

To check your own town, look it up in local holidays for every town in Catalonia.

How to make a long weekend of it: which days to take off

If you work Monday to Friday, these are the combinations the calendar allows. They are our calculation, not an entitlement: leave has to be requested and agreed with your employer, and shifts or collective agreements can change everything.

Without booking anything, Tuesday the 8th is a single day off between two working days. At Christmas you get three days without booking any: the 25th is a Friday and the 26th a Saturday.

What about the rest of Spain? Where Monday the 7th is a holiday

According to the national list of 2026 public holidays published in the BOE (Spain's official state gazette) on 28 October 2025, Monday 7 December is a holiday in Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Cantabria, Castile and León, Extremadura, the Community of Madrid, the Region of Murcia, La Rioja and Melilla. Not in Catalonia, nor in the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Galicia, Navarre, the Basque Country, the Valencian Community or Ceuta. Tuesday the 8th is a holiday everywhere in Spain.

That is why in those regions the Saturday 5 to Tuesday 8 break comes without booking a day, and in Catalonia it does not. If you are travelling to or have family in another region, go by its calendar, not Catalonia's.

Is there school on 7 and 8 December?

Not on Tuesday the 8th. Order EDF/66/2026, which sets the school calendar, says the school holidays are the days in the Department of Business and Labour's holiday calendar plus the town's two local holidays. Where the 7th is a local holiday, there is no school either.

On Monday the 7th, it depends on the school. The order does not make it a holiday, but each school may set "quatre dies festius de lliure disposició" (four free-choice days off), spread over the three terms, and each town's school council proposes the days all its schools should ideally share. In Barcelona, the municipal education council (Consell d'Educació Municipal) proposes Monday 7 December 2026, "pont del 8 de desembre", in the proposal it approved on 10 June 2026. It is a city-wide recommendation and each school decides. Outside Barcelona, ask the school or the town council.

Christmas holidays in the 2026-2027 school year run from 22 December 2026 to 7 January 2027 inclusive. The whole year is in the 2026-2027 school calendar.

Are shops open on 6 and 8 December?

In Barcelona they may open on both days. Sunday the 6th is one of the eight opening days in the general 2026 shopping calendar (Order EMT/77/2025), and Tuesday the 8th is one of the two Barcelona adds (Resolution EMT/4342/2025). In towns that did not send in their own days, 8 December is also an opening day by default. Some councils swapped a date: town-by-town details are in our guide to shops open on Sundays and holidays.

Being allowed to open does not mean every shop will: each decides. Shops the retail law exempts from the general hours (bakeries and cake shops, convenience stores, pharmacies...) can open anyway.

Things to do over the December 2026 bridge

A few ideas with official dates, and the guides where we follow them:

• Christmas markets. The 45th Fira de l'Avet in Espinelves (Osona) runs from 28 November to 8 December 2026, according to Espinelves town council, and the Vic Medieval Market starts on 5 December, according to Vic town council's listings (check the programme before you go). Barcelona's Fira de Santa Llúcia has not published its 2026 dates yet. All of them are in our Christmas markets guide.
• Living nativity scenes. The calendar, with each one's dates once published, is in our living nativity scenes guide.
• Christmas in Barcelona. The lights, the Plaça de Sant Jaume nativity scene and what is open over the holidays: Christmas in Barcelona.
• Snow and skiing. Baqueira Beret plans to open its season on 28 November, weather and snow permitting (the resort's news item of 28 July 2026); no opening is certain until the snow is there. Check whether there is snow in the Pyrenees today and Catalonia's ski resorts.
• Weather. December averages are in our Barcelona weather by month guide.

And the following Sunday, 13 December, is La Marató de 3Cat, the TV3 telethon, this year for neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases.

Data on this page last verified: 26 October 2026.

Keep reading

• Christmas markets in Catalonia
• Shops open on Sundays and holidays
• Catalonia public holidays 2027
• Is today a public holiday in Catalonia?
• Christmas in Barcelona: lights, nativity and what's open
• Living nativity scenes in Catalonia
• Is there snow in the Pyrenees today?
• Ski resorts in Catalonia
• La Marató 2026: date, cause and how to donate