Add holidays to Google Calendar for more than one country
A household or team that spans countries needs more than the default holiday calendar. Google lets you combine regional and religious holiday calendars, but not edit them. This guide is published by Arte Soft, the developer of Cloud Calendars.
Holiday controls
| Want to | Do this | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Add a country | Regional holidays → Browse all → tick | Third-party data |
| Reduce clutter | Choose Public holidays instead of Other observances | Per regional calendar |
| Add a religion’s holidays | Global religious holidays → tick | — |
| Remove one day | Holiday → Trash → Hide this holiday | Cannot edit details |
| Hide all | Uncheck Holidays under Other calendars | One colour for all holidays |
What most people assume
The holidays in my calendar are my days off.
Add the right sources
Under Regional holidays, click Browse all and tick the countries or regions you need. For religious holidays, use the Global religious holidays list and tick or untick each. For a regional calendar, Google lets you show Public holidays or Other observances.
Google says holidays and national observances come from a third-party company that specialises in this data. Treat them as reference, not as an employer’s leave policy.
What you cannot change
Google states you can’t edit the details of individual holidays, and that one colour applies to all holiday events; you can’t recolour them individually.
You can hide one: select the holiday, click Trash and then Hide this holiday. To remove all holidays from view, uncheck Holidays under Other calendars.
Holidays are not your leave
A public holiday is a date in a country, not proof that you or a colleague are off. If you take the day, put your own all-day event or an out-of-office entry on your calendar so other people can see it in their scheduling tools.
Worked example: a two-country household
A fictional couple lives in Ireland; one partner works for a German company. They add Ireland and Germany under Regional holidays, set Germany to Public holidays only to keep the grid readable, and add one religious calendar they observe.
A German regional holiday that does not apply to the partner’s state still appears, so they use Hide this holiday on it. On the days the partner actually takes off, they add their own all-day event “Off — German holiday” to their personal calendar.
Check: open the month and confirm each remaining holiday applies to someone in the household.
What it looks like
Cloud Calendars overview, using our product images. Provider settings and protocol examples described in this guide are separate from the screens shown here.
What to do
- Add each relevant country under Regional holidays.
- Limit busy regions to Public holidays.
- Add religious holidays from the global list as needed.
- Hide individual holidays that don’t apply.
- Record actual days off as your own events.
Questions
- A holiday date is wrong. Can I edit it?
- No. Google says you can’t edit individual holidays. Hide it and add your own event if needed.
- Can I colour Christmas differently from other holidays?
- Google says one colour applies to all holiday events.