Boxing Day 2026 is on Saturday, December 26, and the UK bank holiday moves to Monday, December 28. There are 85 days left. Below is a countdown GIF for your sale emails in dark, light and transparent versions, set to midnight UK time. Change the opening or closing time in the generator.
Boxing Day 2026 is on Saturday, December 26. There are 85 days left. Because the 26th falls on a Saturday, the UK bank holiday moves to Monday, December 28 in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Below are three countdowns ready to copy, plus the generator already set to that date in UK time.
That calendar gives a Boxing Day sale an unusually long first stretch: Friday's Christmas Day bank holiday, then Saturday, Sunday and a bank holiday Monday.
Copying creates your timer: free, no signup and editable from this browser.
All three count down to Saturday, December 26 at midnight, UK time. If your sale opens earlier, on Christmas Day for instance, or you want to count to the close instead, change it in the generator before you copy the code.
Copy the HTML if your platform has a code block, or the URL if it only accepts images by link. All three styles are on the free plan.
The generator is already set up for this page. Change what you need and press Create timer.
Animated GIF. Recalculated every time the email is opened.
Boxing Day itself is Saturday, but the day off is Monday. That matters for two emails. Your opening email lands on a weekend, and your bank holiday reminder goes out on the 28th, not the 26th. If your customer service or warehouse closes for the bank holiday, say so in the email next to the timer.
In Scotland, New Year brings one more day off: January 2 is a Saturday, so the substitute bank holiday is Monday, January 4. A sale that runs into the first weekend of January reaches Scottish customers with an extra free day.
Boxing Day is also one of the ten general holidays in the Canada Labour Code for federally regulated employers. If you sell there too, make a second timer in a Canadian zone, such as America/Toronto, and send it to that segment.
The sale opens and closes at the same moment for everyone, so it takes a fixed-date timer. For people who sign up over the holidays, an evergreen timer gives each new subscriber their own window.
The example runs the sale from Saturday, December 26 to Sunday, January 3 at 11:59 p.m. Adjust it to yours.
| When | Timer | Why | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teaser | Monday, December 21 | Fixed, to the sale opening | Five days' notice before the sale opens |
| Christmas Eve | Thursday, December 24 | The same timer | Rendered at open, so it shows fewer days |
| Opening | Saturday, December 26, morning | Fixed, to the sale's end | From here on, what counts is the time left |
| Bank holiday | Monday, December 28 | The same timer | The bank holiday, so a second chance for anyone who missed the weekend |
| Last day | Sunday, January 3, morning | The same timer | It now shows hours |
| New subscribers | On signup | Per-recipient evergreen (Starter) | Each person gets their own window |
Before the sale, the Christmas countdown covers delivery cutoffs. If the sale ends on New Year's Eve instead, the New Year countdown shows how to time that last email.
The wrong time zone. A timer left on U.S. Eastern time opens your sale at 5 a.m. on the 26th in London. Check that the zone says Europe/London.
Ambiguous dates. 12/26 and 26/12 read differently on each side of the Atlantic. Write the month as a word, "Saturday, December 26", and leave the numbers to the timer.
One end message for every email. "The Boxing Day sale is on!" suits the teaser. For the emails counting to the close, use "Our sale has ended" or hide the timer at zero.
Apple Mail. Mail Privacy Protection downloads images in the background when the email arrives, whether or not it's opened. An email delivered on Christmas Eve and read on Boxing Day may show the Christmas Eve count, so put the opening time in the text.
Extending the sale. If you keep it running past the 3rd, edit the timer. Emails already sent will show the new end, because the image is generated on every open.
Any platform that accepts an HTML block or an image by URL will work. We have guides for Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Brevo and Shopify Email that show where the block lives and how to test it.
Send a test to Gmail and Outlook before Christmas week, while your team is still at their desks.
Saturday, December 26, 2026. Because it falls on a weekend, the bank holiday is Monday, December 28 in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Christmas Day is Friday, December 25.
UK time (Europe/London), the same instant for every reader. If you also sell in North America, remember that midnight in London is 7 p.m. on Christmas Day in New York.
It's one of the ten general holidays in the Canada Labour Code, which covers federally regulated employers. When it falls on a Saturday that isn't a working day, employees get the working day immediately before or after.
The real opening time, for example Friday, December 25 at 6 p.m. UK time. A timer counting to midnight on the 26th would tell readers to wait six more hours for deals that are already live.
The GIF shows the message you wrote, such as "The Boxing Day sale is on!", or a 1 pixel transparent image if you'd rather it disappear.
Microsoft says Outlook for Microsoft 365, 2021 and 2024 play animated GIFs by default. With Windows animations off, or in Outlook 2007, 2010 and 2013, readers see the first frame, which shows the time left at open.
Yes. Set the end in the generator, for example Thursday, December 31 at 11:59 p.m. UK time. New Year's Day, Friday, January 1, is also a bank holiday, and in Scotland so is Monday, January 4.