I’ve hooked up with Google Calendar and am finding it a very pleasant alternative to a computer-based calendar management system. I’ve heard that I can add public holidays and am wondering if you can show me how to do that?
Once you get the hang of the typical Google interface, adding holiday calendars should actually be pretty easy. Let me show you how…
Log in to your Google Calendar account and click on the small “manage calendars” link on the bottom left of your page. It looks like this:
Once you click on “manage calendars” you’ll get the usual configuration area, at which point you’ll want to click on the “Calendars”, which looks like this:
At this point you want to click on “Add Calendar”, which reveals:
As you might guess, you want to click on “Holiday Calendars”, at which point you will promptly be overwhelmed with how many different national calendars are accessible. Scroll down to the United States (or whatever country you prefer) and here’s the kind of thing you’ll see:
Pick the calendar or calendars you’d like then click on the “Add Calendar” and it’ll promptly switch to a “Remove” link:
That’s all there is to it. You’ve just added a holidays calendar and can also see how you can delete it in the future if you decide you don’t really need to know all the holidays for all the countries you zealously added!
Oh, if you want to play with external Google calendars you can include in your own calendar, check out this article at Google Blogoscoped
That Google us holiday calendar is sadly lacking. Here it it’s May and I see it has Cinco De Mayo but not Mother’s Day nor Memorial Day.
There must be another one some other user has created that is better than this.
[…] How do I add public holidays to my Google Calendar? […]
Saved as a favorite, I love your blog!
THANKS!!! REALLY USEFULL
What you suggest makes lots of sense, RedMti, but as far as I know, there’s no dupe-removal capability. 🙁
Hello
Okay, these things are helpful, but what I cannot find anywhere is information on how to actively select the items in the national calendars — or, more correctly de-select them.
If one has reason to use Canada, U. K., Australia and U. S. A. for example, one ends up with Christmas showing four times.
This is absolutely pointless, and wastes space in the calendar square.
How does one select half a dozen calenders, but then choose which of the items shown on those calendars appears? As a Canadian with British and American connections I have need of knowing when they have a day that is NOT the same as Canada’s days, but I don’t need to be told we all have Christmas or Easter on the calendar.
Thanks!
I see the link that says “Manage Calendars” on the little thumbnail you provided, and I see where you got the thumbnail, and it looks exactly the same on my computer except that the “Manage Calendars” link is not present.
I would also have liked to see a calendar that can add holidays beyond the current year. Perhaps the new hotmail update that’s coming out in June will have this functionality (that and color coding different calendar appointments (categories))?
Just wanted to say thank you for this! It was driving me crazy not having US Holidays on my calendar and I just knew there had to be a way. Problem solved in less than 30 seconds!
Not to be too picky, but the calendar only goes through 2010. Anything that can go a little further?
Thanks. This helped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sean, I don’t know of any way you can “import” events from a public calendar onto your own. Hmmm…. you can probably pick the events one-by-one and move them over, but in bulk? I don’t think so.
Hello and thanks for your help but I’m having a little trouble. Does this create a NEW calendar (US Holidays) or simply merge that new calendar’s dates to my already existing calendar?
I’m asking because when I’m logged in to my Google Calendar account, I see the dates I’ve added there AND the US Holidays all right on the same calendar BUT when I log out and look at it on our website (public), only the dates I’ve input are showing and NONE of the holidays are there!
In the Calendar Settings page, both calendars have a checkmark in the “Show in List” column.
Basically, what I need is my dates AND the holidays to both show on the same calendar. Is this possible?
Thank you for your time and effort.
…..Sean
Although the Google interface has changed a bit since this post, the information was still really helpful. I’m kicking myself for not knowing this before! I feel as if I’ve discovered a whole new world after stumbling upon Public Calendars, so thank you for writing this simple and easy-to-follow guide!
The “Holiday Calendars” tab is not there anymore. I had to look under “Browse Calendars”.