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How to add public holidays to Google Calendar

Step-by-step guidance for importing holiday calendars into Google Calendar.

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Overview

Google Calendar can show public holidays in a few different ways:

  1. Google’s built-in holiday calendars (easy, but not always the exact set you want).
  2. Importing an ICS file (great for a specific country, region, and year).
  3. Maintaining a shared “team holidays” calendar (best for organisations).

This guide focuses on the most reliable option for planning: importing an ICS export from this site.

Before you start: choose the right scope

The main decision is what calendar you’re creating.

Best for:

  • trip planning
  • project planning for a specific location
  • staffing a remote team with known locations

Option B: Region-specific holidays

If your country has regional holidays in the dataset (states/provinces), pick the region calendar page before exporting.

Option C: Multi-year planning

If you plan across years (for example fiscal year planning), import multiple years into separate calendars so you can enable/disable them.

Step 1 — Download the ICS file from this site

  1. Go to the relevant country calendar:
    • Example: /public-holidays/united-states
  2. Select the year you need.
  3. Click Download ICS.

You will get a .ics file on your computer.

Step 2 — Create a dedicated calendar in Google Calendar

Creating a dedicated calendar helps you avoid duplicates and keeps holidays separate from your personal events.

Suggested calendar names:

  • “Holidays — United States — 2026”
  • “Holidays — Canada (Ontario) — 2026”

Step 3 — Import the ICS file

Google Calendar imports are typically done from the web interface (not all mobile apps expose import).

General flow:

  1. Open Google Calendar in a browser.
  2. Find Settings → Import & export (names can vary by UI version).
  3. Choose the .ics file.
  4. Select the destination calendar you created.
  5. Import.

After import, you should immediately see holidays appear on their dates.

Step 3.1 — If you don’t see “Import & export”

Google’s settings UI changes over time, but the underlying workflow is the same.

Try these approaches:

  • Use the search box in Settings and search for “import”.
  • Look for a section called “Add calendar” or “Settings” → “Import”.
  • Make sure you’re using the desktop browser version (some embedded views hide import).

Step 3.2 — Choose the right destination calendar

If you import into your main calendar, you may:

  • get duplicates when you re-import next year
  • accidentally share holiday events with the wrong audience
  • make it harder to toggle visibility

Best practice is always a dedicated holiday calendar.

Step 4 — Verify a few dates

Do a quick sanity check:

  • Confirm New Year’s Day shows on January 1.
  • Confirm one major holiday in the middle of the year.
  • If relevant, confirm observed/substitute dates align with what you expect.

If the dates are surprising, double-check that you selected the correct year and (where relevant) the correct region.

Troubleshooting

“My imported holidays didn’t appear”

Try:

  • Make sure the imported calendar is enabled in the left sidebar.
  • Switch views (month/week) and jump to a known holiday.
  • Confirm the import completed without errors.

“I imported twice and now I have duplicates”

Google Calendar generally doesn’t de-duplicate imported events.

Fix options:

  • Delete the calendar you imported into and import again into a fresh calendar.
  • If you imported into an existing calendar, remove the events (harder) or create a new calendar.

Best prevention: always import into a dedicated “Holidays — …” calendar.

“I want the calendar to update automatically when dates change”

Most imports are static snapshots. If you need updates:

  • Set a yearly reminder to refresh the calendar (delete and re-import).
  • For teams, assign one owner to refresh and share the calendar.

“Google already has a holiday calendar—why not use that?”

Google’s built-in calendars are convenient, but they might:

  • include a different set of holidays
  • exclude regional variations
  • differ on observed/substitute conventions

For precise planning, importing a country/year file gives you control.

Best practices for teams

Create one shared calendar per location

If you manage a remote team, the cleanest approach is:

  • One shared holiday calendar per country/region
  • A clear naming convention
  • One owner responsible for updating each year

Add operational notes outside the holiday calendar

Holiday calendars should stay clean. If you need to note “reduced support coverage” or “office closed,” put that information in your team handbook or a separate operational calendar.

Google’s built-in holiday calendars (when they help)

Google offers built-in holiday calendars for many regions. They’re useful when you want a quick, general holiday overlay with minimal effort.

However, built-in calendars may not match your needs when:

  • you need region-specific holidays (states/provinces)
  • you need a specific year’s snapshot for policy or reporting
  • you need to align with your company’s internal holiday list

In those cases, importing from this site is usually the more controllable option.

Keeping things clean: color and visibility

After importing, take 2 minutes to make the calendar easy to use:

  • Assign a distinct color (so holidays don’t blend with meetings).
  • Keep holidays on, but consider turning off “event notifications” for the holiday calendar.
  • If you imported multiple countries, keep each country in its own calendar.

Planning workflow: using holidays to prevent scheduling mistakes

Once holidays are imported, a simple workflow prevents most issues:

  1. Keep the holiday calendars enabled.
  2. When scheduling meetings, glance at the day’s holiday row.
  3. If you’re scheduling across time zones, check whether a holiday affects key participants.
  4. For global deadlines, avoid the day before/after major holidays where travel is common.

This is especially useful around late December and early January when many teams are partially offline.

Removing an imported holiday calendar

If you make a mistake (wrong year, wrong region, duplicates), the cleanest fix is usually:

  1. Delete the calendar you imported into.
  2. Create a fresh calendar.
  3. Import again.

This is faster than trying to manually delete individual holiday events.

A reliable workflow for organisations

For organisations with multiple locations:

  1. Create a shared Google Calendar for each location (or major hub).
  2. Assign an owner (HR/ops) who controls imports.
  3. Import the holiday ICS once per year.
  4. Share the calendar read-only to everyone who needs visibility.

This prevents staff from importing different versions and ending up with inconsistent holiday lists.

Sharing and permissions

If you create a holiday calendar for a team, treat it like a reference calendar:

  • Share it read-only to most people (so events stay consistent).
  • Keep editing rights limited to one or two owners.
  • Document the yearly refresh process (delete/re-import) so ownership is transferable.

This matters because holiday calendars are “infrastructure”: small inconsistencies can lead to scheduling mistakes and policy disputes.

Multi-country teams: a practical approach

If your team spans multiple countries, avoid one giant calendar. A clearer setup is:

  • Calendar per country (and per key region when needed)
  • Optional “HQ closures” calendar for company-specific days

Then each person can enable the calendars relevant to their work.

Common question: can I do this from my phone?

You can view the imported holidays on mobile, but the import step itself is often easiest from a desktop browser. If you don’t see import options on mobile, use a desktop browser workflow.

Avoiding calendar clutter

Holiday visibility is useful, but too many calendars can become noise. A few practical ways to keep Google Calendar usable:

Keep the number of holiday calendars small

Start with the calendars that affect you most:

  • your own country/region
  • the location of your key customers
  • one or two major partner locations

You can always add more later.

Use naming conventions that sort well

If you create multiple calendars, use a consistent naming convention so they group together:

  • “Holidays — 2026 — United States”
  • “Holidays — 2026 — United Kingdom”

or

  • “Holidays — United States — 2026”
  • “Holidays — United States — 2027”

Pick one convention and keep it consistent.

Keep holiday calendars read-only for most people

For a shared team holiday calendar, read-only sharing prevents accidental edits. If someone changes a holiday event title or deletes an event, it can lead to “which calendar is correct?” confusion.

Year-end planning: what to import

If you are importing holidays specifically to avoid scheduling conflicts, it helps to think in terms of planning windows:

  • For short projects: import the current year.
  • For longer projects: import current year + next year.
  • For annual planning cycles: import next year in December.

If you do import multiple years, keep them separate. When the year finishes, you can disable that calendar without affecting next year.

Sources

Explore country calendars

If “How to add public holidays to Google Calendar” affects schedules or planning, use a small set of country pages as a quick cross-check before you generalize.

  • United States — a common reference point for “How to add public holidays to Google Calendar”.
  • United Kingdom — a common reference point for “How to add public holidays to Google Calendar” in Europe-focused contexts.
  • Canada — a practical reference for “How to add public holidays to Google Calendar” in North America.
  • Australia — a practical reference for “How to add public holidays to Google Calendar” in Oceania.
  • India — a practical reference for “How to add public holidays to Google Calendar” in South Asia.

You can then browse /public-holidays for a broader set of countries relevant to “How to add public holidays to Google Calendar”.

Sources

Related guides

How to export public holidays to CSVHow to export public holidays to ICS