The holidays are almost here, and while that is mostly a great thing it also means some odd Christmas trading hours are coming our way. To help with the planning, we thought we’d put together a list (as exhaustive as we can achieve right now) of what is open and more importantly, what is not over the Christmas holidays and New Year’s break.
Here we go.
What’s open across Australia over the Christmas holidays, generally?
Supermarkets:
- Coles (including Coles Liquor stores) and Woolworths stores usually are closed on Christmas Day.
- Coles stores are generally open on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. (Certain stores like Little Knox Victoria, however, are closed Boxing Day and New Year’s Day so please double check).
- Woolworths stores are mostly open on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. Find more details on your specific Woolies store’s hours here.
- ALDI stores are mostly closed on Christmas Day, with many stores open for the remainder of the Christmas period. Check specific times for your local store here.
Mail services:
Australia Post Offices are generally closed on all public holidays. You can also find a wrap up of delivery cut off dates here.
Cinemas:
Some cinemas are open over the holiday period. This varies greatly from venue to venue, however.
Events Cinemas are usually open nationally on Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Most venues are closed on Christmas Day but you can usually find certain venues that are open for afternoon screenings. The same goes for Hoyts cinemas, which has had certain venues open on Christmas Day in past years – but it’s worth double-checking before heading in.
Contact Hoyts, Events or your local cinema for specific details.
BWS and Dan Murphy’s:
Booze stores BWS and Dan Murphy’s have their Christmas trading hours available for 2021, so we’ve popped the full breakdown for you below.
- Christmas Eve (24 December 2021): All stores open
- Christmas Day (25 December 2021): All stores closed, apart from a few selected that are open in NSW, VIC, ACT and SA.
- Boxing Day (26 December 2021): All stores open
- 27th December: All stores open
- 28th December: All stores open
- New Year’s Eve (31 December 2021): All stores open
- New Year’s Day (1 January 2022): All stores open
Shopping centres:
Most shopping centres are closed on Christmas Day with holiday hours in place over the rest of the holiday period. Check out Westfields hours here.
In terms of stores specifically: Retailers like Kmart, Big W and Target are all expected to be open for extended hours in the lead up to the holidays, but will likely be closed on Christmas Day. (We’ll pop in any specific Christmas trading hour breakdowns as they become available).
Banks:
Banks will be closed on Christmas Day, and payment will not be processed on this date. However, beyond that, there are varying hours for different branches and specific banks. Here are some holiday guides for ANZ, CommBank, Westpac, and Reserve Bank of Australia as a start.
Is public transport running as normal over the Christmas break?
New South Wales
A Transport for NSW spokesperson told Lifehacker in 2020 that:
“If you’re catching public transport, allow plenty of extra travel time, plan ahead and check for service capacity using the Trip Planner at transportnsw.info, the Opal Travel app, or a third party transport app.
“Timetables for special events, including Boxing Day sales, will appear in Trip Planner closer to the date.”
Victoria
Victorian Transport ran free public transport on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day in 2020. No updates just yet on what 2021 services will look like.
Queensland:
TransLink Queensland has shared updated timetables for Christmas and Boxing Day.
South East Queensland services will be running to a public holiday schedule, while services in Cairns, Toowoomba, Townsville (except Magnetic Island route 250) and Mackay will not be running on Christmas Day.
ACT:
Canberra has released a special public holiday timetable for the Christmas period.
South Australia:
Adelaide Metro has not yet shared a holiday public transport service guide, but you can find the latest updates here.
Tasmania:
Tassie has not yet shared a holiday public transport service guide, but you can find the latest updates here.
Northern Territory:
The NT usually runs a special event bus service for dates like New Year’s Eve and Christmas Day services will be altered. Please check with your local transport provider for more information.
Western Australia:
TransPerth has not yet shared a holiday public transport service guide, but you can find the latest updates here.
How about the bins?
Your local waste collection services may be impacted due to Christmas and other public holiday dates – many services will not run on Christmas Day. Please check if there are any changes for your suburb over the break.
Okay, that’s everything we’ve got for you so far! We’ll update this with any specific Christmas trading hours updates we receive closer to the holiday dates.
This article has been updated since its original publish date to reflect 2021 Christmas trading hours.
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