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Holiday Drinking Planner 2026

Tap your party dates, set a weekly cap and how many drink-free days you want. The planner places the drink-free days around your events, gives each event a drink budget, and sets your season beside your country’s low-risk guideline — with a printable calendar and a calendar file to take away.

Your season, 30 Nov – 3 Jan 2027
10 drink-free days across 5 weeks

up to 4.5 units at each event

Your weekly cap
14 units a week
Drink-free days each week
2 of 7 days

United Kingdom: No more than 14 units a week for men and women, spread over 3 or more days.

Add the fixed dates

Tap any day on the calendar for an office party, a family dinner or anything else.

The season, day by day

30 Nov – 3 Jan 2027
Week 1 · no events
Week 2 · no events
Week 3 · no events
Week 4 · 1 event 9.5 units left for the other days
Week 5 · 1 event 9.5 units left for the other days
Drink-free Event, with its budget Your cap covers it Today Guideline

The plan below is worked out on the server. With script turned on, tap a day to add or move an event.

Plan how you get home before you go. The only safe driving amount is none.

Your season against the guideline

Drink-free days 10 of the 10 you asked for
Events 2 9 units budgeted across them
Your cap, 5 weeks 70 units in all
Your cap Budgeted at events Guideline

Your cap over 5 weeks is 70 units; United Kingdom's guideline over the same weeks is 70.

No event is budgeted above 4.5 units, which is United Kingdom's weekly guideline spread evenly over the 3 days it names, rounded down.

Your events

DateEventBudgetDay after
Fri 25 Dec Christmas Day 4.5 units Drink-free
Thu 31 Dec New Year's Eve 4.5 units Drink-free

Take the plan with you

One page for the fridge door, the drink-free days in your phone's calendar, or the link to come back to. All three carry the plan exactly as it is on screen.

Print the calendar Add drink-free days to calendar

Drinking heavily every day? Stopping abruptly can be medically dangerous — check your withdrawal risk and talk to a doctor before you add drink-free days.

How this is calculated

The season is every whole Monday-to-Sunday week that covers 1 December to 1 January. Each week, drink-free days go on the day after an event first, then as far from events and from each other as the week allows; never on an event. Each event's budget is the week's cap divided by that week's events, capped at the country's one-day or one-occasion line where its guideline gives one, and rounded down to the half drink. The guideline over the season is the weekly guideline times the number of weeks. Every guideline figure is the country's own, read off its health authority on the date shown; the planner adds none.

Sources

  • NHS — United Kingdom · read 2026-09-24

Our editorial policy explains how these tools and articles are researched and kept up to date.

Why plan in weeks, around the events

Most national guidelines are written per week, and several add a line for one day or one occasion. December tests both at once: a week can hold an office party, a family dinner and a night out, and a weekly cap only holds if the nights share it. Putting the events down first turns a cap into a number for each night.

Drink-free days fit best on days with no plans, and the day after an event is a natural one to start with. If a night goes past its budget, nothing is ruined: the plan is still the plan for the rest of the week. For a night out, zebra striping — an alcohol-free drink after every alcoholic one — caps it at half the drinks without leaving early, and if December runs into a month off, Dry January starts the day after this calendar ends.

Asked and answered

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I plan my drinking over Christmas and New Year?
Put the events on a calendar first, then choose a weekly cap and how many drink-free days you want each week. This planner places the drink-free days around your events, shares each week's cap across that week's events, and prints the whole season on one page. The plan runs in whole weeks from the Monday before December 1 to the Sunday after New Year's Day, because a weekly cap needs whole weeks.
How many drinks is too many at a Christmas party?
Your country's guideline is the honest answer, and most are weekly. The UK says no more than 14 units a week, spread over 3 or more days, so one party cannot take the whole week: 14 spread evenly over 3 days is a little over 4.5 units a day. Ireland adds a line of 6 standard drinks on any one occasion and Australia 4 on any one day. The planner never budgets an event above that line, and no amount of alcohol is free of risk.
How does the planner choose my drink-free days?
It never puts one on an event. In each week, the day after an event goes first; the rest are spread as far from your events and from each other as the week allows. If a week has more events than room for the drink-free days you asked for, the calendar says how many it could not place rather than moving anything.
How is the budget for each event worked out?
The week's cap divided by the number of events that week, never more than your country's one-day or one-occasion line where the guideline has one, and rounded down to the nearest half drink. Three events in a 14-unit UK week get 4.5 units each; one event in the same week also gets 4.5, because 14 spread over 3 days is the UK's own shape.
How many drink-free days a week should I have?
Some guidelines name a number: France and Poland ask for at least 2 alcohol-free days a week, and the planner opens on 2 for everyone else too. Choose more if you like, up to all seven.
Can I add the drink-free days to my phone calendar?
Yes. The calendar file holds one all-day entry per drink-free day, titled "Drink-free day" and nothing else, so it says no more than you choose on a shared calendar. It is a plain .ics file that Apple Calendar, Google Calendar and Outlook all read, and downloading it again after a change updates the same days rather than doubling them.
Can I print the plan?
Yes. The print button opens the whole season on one page: the calendar with each event and its budget, the drink-free days marked, a box to tick on each one, and your totals beside the guideline. The same print dialog saves it as a PDF.
If I stay inside my budget, is it fine to drive home?
No. A budget is about your health over the season, and it says nothing about driving. Plan how you get home before you go. The only safe driving amount is none.
My country gives no number. What cap should I use?
The United States has given no number since January 2026, Germany since September 2024 and the Netherlands since June 2026; Brazil and Ukraine say no level is safe. The planner draws no guideline line for them, and you set a cap of your own. Germany's federal health institute puts it plainly: the less you drink, the better.
I drink every day. Should I just stop for December?
If you drink heavily every day, stopping abruptly can be medically dangerous. Check your withdrawal risk and talk to a doctor before you add drink-free days, and let a doctor help you plan how to cut down.

Zebra Striping Tracker

One alcoholic drink, one alcohol-free, all night. Tap each round and watch the stripe hold.

Dry January Tracker

A January calendar to fill in or print, an honest grid, and a month that never resets on you.

Alcohol Units Calculator

Any drink turned into your country's units, with the standard drink and the guideline of 23 countries side by side.

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The plan is made in November. The nights happen in December.

Rebuild logs each drink as it happens and shows your weekly units in real time, so the plan is with you at the party.

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