When drafting a schedule in a parenting plan in Colorado, the regular weekly schedule is only part of the picture. Most weeks of the year typically follow the same schedule, but holidays, school breaks, birthdays, and vacations can interrupt that pattern.
For many families, this makes planning your time together a lot more complicated. A holiday might be tied to family traditions. A school break might be the only time one parent can travel. A birthday might bring up questions about whether the child spends time with one parent, both parents, or alternates each year.
To make this process a bit easier to manage, parenting plans often separate the calendar into different layers, with the regular schedule as the starting point. For instance, holidays and school breaks are usually listed separately from vacations because they often take priority when they fall during another parent’s regular time.
This article will explain some of the common ways holidays and vacations are divided in a parenting plan.
How Holiday Schedules Fit Into The Broader Plan
In Colorado, child custody and visitation fall under the Allocation of Parental Responsibilities. An APR order includes a detailed parenting time schedule. That schedule must define exactly what happens during special occasions and disruptions to the normal routine.
Because holidays sit at the top of the calendar hierarchy, they often take precedence over the normal weekly rotation. For example, if a specific holiday falls on a Tuesday, the parent assigned to that holiday will have the child. This applies even if Tuesday is typically the other parent's designated day. The regular schedule simply pauses for the duration of the holiday.
Once the holiday concludes, the schedule resumes its normal pattern. The parent who missed their regular Tuesday does not automatically get a makeup day later in the week, unless it is written into the Parenting Plan. This structured hierarchy prevents confusion when schedules inevitably conflict. Parents know exactly which rule to follow without having to negotiate the conflict in real time.
Common Ways To Divide Holidays And Special Days
There is no single state-mandated holiday schedule in Colorado. Parents have the freedom to divide these days in whatever way suits their family dynamics. When parents cannot agree, a court will establish a schedule based on the best interests of the child.
Most families adopt one of a few common structures to ensure a fair distribution of time.
Alternating Odd And Even Years
Many parents alternate major holidays based on odd and even years. One parent might have Thanksgiving in odd years and the winter holidays in even years. This allows both parents to experience major celebrations with their children over a two-year cycle.
Splitting The Holiday Itself
Families who live near each other sometimes choose to divide a single holiday in half. One parent might take the morning and the other takes the evening. This requires excellent communication and a willingness to manage multiple transitions in one day. The child also spends a portion of their holiday traveling between homes.
Assigning Fixed Holidays
Some families assign specific holidays to the same parent every year. This often happens when parents have different religious backgrounds or specific family traditions. For example, one parent might always take Easter while the other always takes Passover.
Three-Day Weekends
Holidays like Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day are attached to a weekend. If a parent already has the child for that regular weekend, the parenting plan might simply extend their time through Monday. Alternatively, parents can choose to alternate these long weekends just like major holidays to ensure one parent does not unintentionally have parenting time on all of the three-day weekends in a given year due to the regular rotation.
Mother's Day, Father's Day, And Birthdays
Certain days follow their own logic outside of the standard rotation. Mother's Day is almost universally assigned to the mother, and Father's Day to the father, regardless of the underlying schedule. A child's birthday is often treated more uniquely. Some parents choose to alternate the child's birthday each year, some may split the day between two parents, while others might agree to spend a few hours together as a family to celebrate.
Managing Extended School Breaks
School schedules introduce long interruptions to the standard weekly routine. Spring break, fall break, and the extended summer vacation require their own specific parameters in a parenting plan.
The winter holiday is often the most complex block of time to schedule. It combines an extended break from school with several major holidays clustered closely together. Many parents choose to divide the winter break evenly down the middle. One parent might take the first half of the break, including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day while the other parent takes the second half, including New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. They then swap those halves the following year to maintain fairness.
Defining the exact transition times for these breaks prevents arguments in the school parking lot. Parents must decide if winter break officially begins when the school bell rings on Friday afternoon or on Saturday morning.
Spring and fall breaks are generally shorter, usually lasting one week. Families often alternate these breaks year by year. If a child has a one-week spring break, one parent might take the entire week in odd years, and the other parent takes it in even years.
Summer break offers significantly more flexibility. Some families maintain their regular weekly schedule throughout the entire summer. Others shift to an alternating week schedule to give both parents longer, uninterrupted stretches of time with the child. Another common approach is to keep the regular schedule but grant each parent the right to exercise two or three weeks of uninterrupted vacation time during the summer months. Parents who need help structuring these extended blocks of time can [schedule a mediation session] to discuss their options.
Parents who work standard office hours may need to coordinate child care or summer camps during these breaks. Parents with flexible schedules or backgrounds in education might use the summer to take on more parenting time.
Planning For Vacations And Travel
Vacation time allows parents to take their children on trips regardless of the regular parenting schedule. A standard parenting plan usually allows each parent to take a specific number of vacation days or weeks per year. To make this work smoothly, the plan needs clear rules for how and when that time is exercised.
Often, parents will establish a deadline for selecting summer vacation weeks. The plan might state that all summer vacation dates must be submitted by April 1st. To prevent conflicts, the plan might give one parent priority to choose their dates first in odd years, and the other parent priority in even years.
Parents typically include specific logistical requirements in their agreements to handle the details of travel:
- Deadlines for notifying the other parent about proposed travel dates
- Rules regarding how many consecutive days a parent can travel
- Requirements for sharing flight itineraries, hotel addresses, and emergency contact numbers
- Agreements on international travel restrictions and who holds the child's passport
- Protocols for resolving situations where both parents request the same vacation dates
Finding The Right Arrangement In Mediation
Every family has their own routines and preferences. A schedule that works perfectly for one household might be entirely impractical for another.
The calendar hierarchy provides a framework, but there are often many details to iron out that parties are not aware of. As a neutral professional providing mediation, arbitration, and private judging services, I help divorcing parents talk through these logistical challenges. We look closely at work schedules, school calendars, and family traditions to build a customized parenting plan.
If your client needs assistance resolving a parenting time schedule, contact Gokli Dispute Resolution to book a mediation session.
*This blog is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice.