Knowing the National Holidays in The Netherlands can help you make most of your time! The Dutch calendar is luckily filled with public holidays and national celebrations. Here’s your guide for the national holidays in The Netherlands 2025:
Official Public Holidays 2025
New Year’s Day | Wednesday, January 1st |
Good Friday | Friday, April 18th |
Easter Sunday | Sunday, April 20th |
Easter Monday | Monday, April 21st |
King’s Day | Saturday, April 26th |
Liberation Day | Monday, May 5th |
Ascension Day | Thursday, May 29th |
Whit (Pentecost) Sunday | Sunday, June 8th |
Whit (Pentecost) Monday | Monday, June 9th |
Christmas Day | Thursday, December 25th |
Boxing Day | Friday, December 26th |
Unofficial Holidays 2025
National Remembrance Day |
Sunday, May 4th |
Sinterklaas |
Friday, December 5th |
New Year’s Eve |
Wednesday, December 31st |
Unofficial holidays are holidays that are not legally recognized. Companies might still decide to give their employees these days off.
How to make the most of your vacation days
Most companies offer 25 vacation days on top of the public holidays in The Netherlands. What if I tell you, you can almost double your number of vacation days! Let’s dive in:
In 2025, many public holidays fall on weekdays. This year Liberation Day is also a public holiday. This is the Dutch public holiday that is commemorated every five years.
It means you need to take fewer days off to take an extra long holiday.
You do need to plan ahead and be a bit creative with your schedule.
Also inform your manager in advance to get your holidays approved, as you might not be the only one thinking of this!
Let’s have a look at this example:
- Take the 14th until the 17th of April off and the 22nd until the 25th – 8 vacation days
- In return you will get 14 days back that you can enjoy!
This is because there’s two public holidays on weekdays during this period (Good Friday and Easter Monday).