My SZN Guide · Live the SZN · ❄️ Winter
Twixmas: What to Do With the Days In Between
The odd, timeless stretch between Christmas and New Year, and how to actually enjoy it.
Guide · rest · 6 min · 6 min read
Twixmas is the bit of the year nobody quite plans for: the 27th to the 30th of December, when the big day is over, New Year hasn't started, and most people genuinely don't know what day it is. It has no proper rules, no fixed traditions and, for a lot of households, no clear food shop either.
That's exactly what makes it good, if you let it be. There's no obligation attached to these days the way there is to the 25th or the 31st — which makes them the ideal stretch for doing precisely nothing, or precisely one nice thing, without any sense of wasting them.
Here's how to use the days well: some structure for the ones who need a plan even on a plan-free week, and permission for everyone else to just sit in it.
Why these days feel so strange
Twixmas sits outside the normal week structure — shops keep odd hours, most people are off work, and there's usually still a fridge full of things to eat. The result is a genuine pause: no meetings, no deadlines, and often no clear sense of what day it even is.
Rather than fighting that feeling, it's worth treating it as the point. This is one of the only stretches of the year built for doing very little on purpose.
Low-effort things worth doing
- A long walk somewhere new, ideally while it's still light — the best excuse to actually use whatever new outdoor kit turned up on the 25th.
- A proper board game or jigsaw session with no time pressure attached.
- A day entirely in pyjamas, treated as deliberate rather than lazy.
- Sorting through decorations and deciding what's coming down before New Year and what's staying a little longer.
- Writing down the best bits of Christmas Day while they're still fresh, for a future scrapbook or just your own memory.
- A charity shop wander with any gift-token money, before the January sales properly start.
What to do with the leftovers
- Turkey curry, turkey pie or a big turkey and stuffing sandwich — the classic uses, and still the best ones.
- A 'clear the fridge' soup made from whatever vegetables are left, which usually tastes better than it sounds.
- Cheeseboard remnants turned into a toastie or a simple pasta bake.
- Freeze anything you genuinely won't get through in the next two days — leftovers guilt is not worth carrying into January.
If you want a bit of structure
- One outing a day, however small — a walk, a coffee, a visit — so the days feel distinct from one another rather than blurring together.
- A single job tackled each day if the house needs it: one cupboard, one room, one pile of thank-you cards.
- A loose plan for New Year's Eve made by the 29th, so it doesn't become a last-minute scramble on the day.
Permission to do nothing
There is no rule that Twixmas has to be productive, restorative or even particularly memorable. A week of naps, toast and old films is a perfectly good use of it — the season doesn't need every day to earn its place.
Keep a few ideas for next year's lull
Keep whichever of these actually suited your household, so next December's in-between days have a plan waiting.
- Take a big Twixmas walkKept for later
- Make turkey curry with the leftoversKept for later
- Do a jigsaw or board game over several daysKept for later
- Spend gift tokens before the sales endKept for later
Anything you keep lands in My Keeps — ready to plan, live and remember.
Twixmas questions
- What does Twixmas mean?
- Twixmas is an informal term for the days between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve — roughly 27–30 December — when normal routines pause but the festive period isn't quite over.
- Are shops open during Twixmas in the UK?
- Most shops reopen on 27 December with reduced or slightly adjusted hours, often for the start of the January sales, though it's worth checking individual opening times as they vary by retailer and location.
- What can you do with leftover turkey?
- Curry, pie, soup, sandwiches and pasta bakes all work well. Cooked turkey keeps safely in the fridge for up to two days, or can be frozen for longer if you won't get through it in time.
My SZN editorial. Opening times, prices and local conditions change — always check with the place you're visiting before you travel.
More My SZN Guides
My SZN Guide · Live the SZN
Live This SZN: How to Actually Use a Season
Everyone saves the ideas. This is the bit about doing them — a small, honest method for getting a season out of a season.
6 min read
My SZN Guide · Live the SZN
The Christmas Planning Checklist: A Calm Month-by-Month Plan (UK)
Nothing left to the last week — a month-by-month plan that spreads Christmas out instead of piling it into December.
8 min read
My SZN Guide · Live the SZN
A Realistic Christmas Budget for a UK Household
What Christmas actually costs, broken into categories most people forget, and a way to spread it that doesn't hurt in January.
8 min read