Christmas at Your Hair Salon or Barbershop: How to Plan December Bookings (and Save January)

There is a phone call that happens in a lot of hair salons around 20 December. It's a client of many years who wants an appointment on the 23rd, "any time at all". There's nothing. Not on the 23rd, not on the 22nd, not on the morning of the 24th. You say you're sorry, hang up, and five minutes later someone else calls for the same thing. That week you work twelve-hour days, eat standing up and still turn people away. Then 7 January comes around and the book is so empty you have time to tidy the stockroom twice.

You can't stretch December, but you can prepare for it. And almost everything that makes it go well is decided earlier, between the end of October and November.

The short answer: open Christmas bookings several weeks ahead and tell your regulars first, decide now which extra hours you'll open (a few, well chosen), move your longest services out of the peak week, sell gift cards that are redeemed in January and, before the 24th, book the next appointment for every client who sits in your chair. Below you'll find a calendar to organise it, the calculation of how many appointments really fit in the busy fortnight, wording to let people know and what you can leave set up in the app.

Why December is won in November

For a business that works by appointment, Christmas isn't a whole month of extra work. It's about two very concentrated weeks. In most hair salons and barbershops, the busy days run from mid-December to Christmas Eve, with a second push before New Year's Eve. Beauty salons see something similar, but it starts earlier because of office parties: manicures, brows and waxing get booked from the start of the month.

Those days can't be extended at will. You have the hours you have and the chairs you have, and when demand goes beyond that, someone is left out. The question is who. If you don't plan it, the one left out is whoever calls late, and that's often your lifelong client, the one who took it for granted that you'd always squeeze them in. Meanwhile, whoever booked first gets in, even if it's their first visit.

This year the calendar is a little tighter. In 2026, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve both fall on a Thursday, so Fridays the 25th and the 1st are public holidays and the last week before Christmas shrinks to four days. If you close on Mondays, you're left with Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning to see everyone who wants to look their best for Christmas Eve dinner.

The calendar: what to do and when

This is one way to split it up. You don't need to follow it to the day, but you do need to follow the order, because each step depends on the one before.

When	What to do
End of October	Decide your December hours: which days you open extra, which public holidays you close and which services you won't do in the busy week. Design the gift card.
First half of November	Tell your regulars in person and open bookings for the busy dates. Start selling gift cards.
Second half of November	Tell everyone else: notification, social media, a sign on the counter. Check how the week of the 21st is filling up.
1 to 14 December	Confirm extra hours or extra staff if the book calls for it. Do the colours and long treatments. Start a waiting list.
15 to 24 December	Work. Confirm the next day's appointments, use the waiting list when someone cancels and offer every client their January appointment.
26 to 31 December	Styling and touch-ups for New Year's Eve, especially on the morning of the 31st. Remove the special hours from the app.
First week of January	Rest if you can, remind people that gift cards can now be redeemed and launch your quiet-hours offers.

How many appointments really fit in the busy fortnight

Before you decide whether to open on a Monday or stay until ten at night, do a simple calculation: how many appointments fit in your normal hours, and how many more you'd get from what you're thinking of adding. Without that figure, everything gets decided by eye, and by eye December always looks endless.

Picture a barbershop with two chairs, 30-minute haircuts and opening hours from Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 14:00 and 16:30 to 20:30. That's eight hours a day, 16 appointments per chair and 32 between the two. Between Tuesday the 15th and Thursday the 24th there are eight working days, the last one mornings only. This is what that gives you, with and without extra hours:

	Normal hours	With extra hours
Days open from the 15th to the 24th	8 (the 24th, mornings only)	9 (also open on Monday the 21st)
Hours open	60	70 (all of Monday and one more hour on the evenings of the 22nd and 23rd)
Possible appointments with two chairs	240	280
Maximum takings with a €15 haircut	€3,600	€4,200

Ten more hours with the doors open give you, at most, 40 appointments and €600. That "at most" matters, because they only fill up if there really are people waiting. You can read the table two ways. If at the start of December the week of the 21st is already almost full, opening on Monday probably pays off. If it isn't, you may be about to swap your day off for a half-empty Monday, right before the hardest week of the year.

The other half of the calculation is how many people will ask you for an appointment. Nobody knows exactly, but you have clues: last December's book, if you kept it; how many people you had to turn away (if you didn't write it down, do it this year, it'll help you next time); and how many regulars you have who usually come in before the holidays. If 200 regulars want to come in once between the 15th and the 24th and you have room for 240 appointments, it's tight. If there are 300, they won't fit, and it's better to know that in November than on the 20th.

Open bookings early and tell your regulars first

The people who plan Christmas ahead tend to be your best clients: the ones who come every three or four weeks, know what they want and would rather not leave it to chance. If you let them book early, they spread themselves across the fortnight in a way you'd never manage over the phone. If you don't, on 20 December they're competing for the same slot as everyone else.

The simplest way is to do it in the chair. To every regular who comes in during November, while you're taking payment: "Hey, shall I keep your Christmas one for you now? It goes fast." Many will say yes on the spot, and you put that appointment in the book yourself. The ones who'd rather think about it now know they need to hurry.

Two or three weeks later, you tell everyone else. Here's some wording you can adapt:

At the counter, on WhatsApp or on social media: "Christmas bookings are now open. The week of the 21st to the 24th fills up every year, so if you want to come in on those days, best to book now. This year we're also open on Monday the 21st."

Push notification (short): "You can now book your Christmas appointment. On the 22nd and 23rd we're open until 21:30."

One message is enough; you don't need ten. One notification when you open bookings and, at most, another when there are few slots left in the busy week. If you send "almost gone!" every week, people stop reading them just when it really matters. We go into more detail in our guide to push notifications for businesses.

The app's booking horizon

For someone to book 23 December in mid-November, your booking system has to let them see that date. In AppMyBusiness, the free plan lets clients book up to 14 days ahead, so the 23rd only shows up two weeks before. That's plenty for most of the year, but at Christmas it falls short. With the Pro plan you can extend it to 30, 60 or 90 days: if you set it to 60 at the end of October, your clients can already book up to Christmas.

And if someone at the counter asks for a day that doesn't show in the app yet, that's fine: you can create the appointment yourself from the dashboard, for any date, as long as it falls within your opening hours. What matters is that every appointment, wherever it comes from, is in the same book. December double bookings almost always start with a notebook on the counter and an app that know nothing about each other.

Extending your hours without burning out

The temptation is to open every day in December from nine to nine. Better not. The last week is the hardest, and it's the one you most need to reach in one piece; three weeks of very long hours leave you exhausted right then. Besides, as the table shows, each extra hour gives what it gives: two appointments per chair, not one more.

It works better to add a little, where the demand is:

• The evenings of the busy days. One more hour on the 22nd and 23rd is when most people want to come in: those leaving work who want to look sharp for the dinner.
• One of the days you normally close, just one. Monday the 21st, if at the start of the month your book for that week is already full.
• The mornings of the 24th and the 31st. Many salons open only in the morning on those days. If you do, say so in advance and everywhere, because it's what you'll be asked most.

If you have extra help in December (an apprentice, a colleague who comes in some evenings), the calculation changes: with three people cutting instead of two, half as many appointments again fit into those hours.

How to set it up in the app

In AppMyBusiness, opening hours are weekly: you set them by day of the week and time block, and for each block you say how many people you can see at once. There are no special hours for a specific date, so your Christmas hours are built in two pieces:

1. What you open extra goes into the weekly hours. If you're opening on Monday the 21st, you add Monday. If you have extra help, raise the number of people you see at once in those blocks.
2. What you don't open gets closed with blocks. Once you add Monday, the app will offer every Monday within your booking horizon, so close the ones you won't open with a date block (Pro plan), which can cover a whole day or a range of hours. Do the same with public holidays that fall on days you normally open: this year, 8 and 25 December and 1 and 6 January, plus your region's own. If someone already had an appointment on a day you block, the app flags it so you can call them.
3. On 2 January, back to normal hours. Set a reminder on your phone now, because it's exactly the thing that always gets forgotten.

The free plan has no blocks, so the most practical approach is to add the extra block as close to the date as possible and remove it as soon as it's over.

Long services are better kept out of the peak week

In the busy fortnight, time is what's worth most. Three hours of highlights on 23 December take up the chair as long as six haircuts, and the person who wanted one of those haircuts that day has no alternative. The highlights client usually does: it makes no difference to them whether they have them done on the 10th or the 23rd, as long as their colour looks good for the holidays.

That's why it makes sense to move long services (full colour, highlights, straightening, treatments of more than an hour) to the weeks before. Say so in November: "If you're having your colour done for Christmas, the first week of December is best, because after that there's no room." A well-done colour easily lasts two or three weeks.

The same goes for long treatments in beauty salons. On the busy days, the short services people want just before a dinner fit better: manicures, brows or waxing a single area.

In the app, if you have the Pro plan with bookable services, each service takes up the time it really lasts, so a set of highlights can't sneak into half an hour. And if you'd rather nobody booked them online during the peak week, you can untick "bookable" on those days. They stay in your showcase, with their photo and price, but they don't appear when booking, and anyone who wants them calls you. While it's unticked they can't be booked online for any date, so tick it again as soon as the 24th is over.

Make sure nobody misses Christmas week

A missed appointment on a Tuesday in February is a shame. A missed appointment on 23 December hurts twice as much, because you turned that slot down for someone who would have come. In the busy fortnight, every no-show is a client who went somewhere else.

The good part is that at Christmas there's nearly always someone waiting to take that slot, if you're organised:

• Ask for an email when people book, or note it down yourself. With it, the app sends an email reminder the day before. It's the cheapest way to make sure nobody forgets.
• Confirm long, expensive appointments by hand. A WhatsApp the evening before to whoever has a colour or a party hairdo booked: "Shall we expect you tomorrow at 10?" If they don't answer, you know who to call.
• Keep a waiting list. Every time you say "I've got nothing left", ask: "Shall I put you down in case something comes up?" Name, phone and which days work for them, in a notebook by the till or a note on your phone.
• When someone cancels, mark it straight away. When you mark the appointment as cancelled, the slot shows as free again in the app and the client gets an email if they left one. That's the moment to go to your waiting list.

If you want to go deeper, we have a whole article on what to do when clients don't show up for their appointment and another on how to fill the gaps in your appointment book, which works just as well for the slots that free up in December.

Gift cards: December's best seller (and the worst prepared)

A gift card is the perfect answer for anyone who doesn't know what to give, and for you it has an advantage almost nobody makes the most of: you're paid in December and do the work later. Set up well, it's the best tool you have to stop January from being a desert.

A few simple rules:

• For something specific or a round amount. "Haircut and beard trim" or "€30 for whatever you like". Something specific is easier to understand; an amount is more flexible. You can offer both.
• Redeemable from 7 January. That way it doesn't eat into the busy fortnight and it brings people in during the slow month. Say so clearly when you sell it. Hardly anyone minds, because the gift is for after the holidays.
• With a visible, generous expiry date. A year is the easiest for everyone. Very short deadlines end in arguments at the counter and bad reviews.
• With a number and a record. Number each card and write down on a sheet who bought it, the amount, the date and when it's redeemed. It saves you trouble and tells you how many you've sold.
• Nicely presented. A paper envelope, a card with your logo and some string. You don't need more, but don't do less either: people buy it to give as a present.

A note on tax: when the VAT on a gift card is due depends on whether it's for a specific service or for an amount that can be spent on anything. Ask your accountant before you sell the first one, and while you're at it, ask about expiry dates, in case your region has a consumer rule that covers them. It's a five-minute question.

For your clients to know they exist, put them where people can see them: a sign on the counter, a line when you take payment ("did you know we do gift cards?") and an entry in your app. In AppMyBusiness you can add it to your showcase like any other service, with a photo, description and price. The app doesn't sell it or take payment online, because it's bought in the shop, but anyone who opens the app can see it exists and what it costs.

One more thing: the person who receives the card often isn't your client. It's a client's partner, sister or friend. If you look after them well on the day they come to redeem it and show them how to book from the app, there's a good chance they'll come back next time and pay themselves.

January is prepared before 24 December

The January slump reaches hair salons too. After two weeks in which everyone has had their hair done, in the following three or four hardly anyone needs it. If your clients come every four or five weeks, the ones who came in on 22 December won't be back until late January. That's normal. What you can avoid is January catching you with nothing done.

Three things work, and all three are done in December:

1. Offer the next appointment when you take payment. "Shall I book you in for the end of January?" With the client in front of you, you create that appointment from the dashboard in ten seconds, even if the date falls outside the app's booking horizon. It's the most profitable thing you can do all December, and hardly anyone does it because by then there's no energy left.
2. Gift cards, redeemable from the 7th. The ones you sold in December are January appointments that are already paid for.
3. An offer for the quiet hours, not for the whole month. If Tuesday mornings in January are usually empty, the offer is for those Tuesdays. We explain it with numbers in the article on how to fill the gaps in your appointment book.

If you've been thinking about raising your prices for a while, the new year is a good time, and December, when more people come through the door than ever, is the ideal month to tell them in person.

And if you need a holiday, January is the month. Close those days well in advance (in the app, with a date block) and let people know in December, while your clients still see you.

Typical December mistakes

• Announcing your Christmas hours on 15 December. By then, the people who plan ahead have already booked, and not always with you.
• Opening many more hours than you'll fill. Do the table's calculation first. Ten hours open with no clients are ten hours of tiredness with no takings.
• Keeping two books. A notebook for the phone and the app for online bookings end up, sooner or later, with two people at the same time on the 23rd.
• Running discounts in December. It's the month you need them least. Save them for January.
• Accepting three-hour services in the peak week. That's six haircuts you don't do, and six people who go somewhere else.
• Forgetting to remove the special hours. On 2 January someone books Monday the 4th at nine at night, and you're at home.

What AppMyBusiness does in all this (and what it doesn't)

So you know exactly what it can save you and what you'll still have to do yourself:

• Online bookings 24 hours a day, with your link and your QR code. Unlimited appointments and no commission per appointment, included in the free plan.
• Opening hours by day of the week and time block, with how many people you see at once in each block. The app only offers the hours you really have free.
• Appointments added by hand from the dashboard, for any date, within your opening hours and without going over your capacity. All in the same book.
• An email reminder the day before, if the client has an email. And if you cancel an appointment, the slot is freed and the client gets an email.
• A showcase with up to 20 services or products, with photo, description and price. Your gift card fits there.
• With the Pro plan: bookings 30, 60 or 90 days ahead (14 on the free plan), blocks for days or time ranges, services with their own length, phone alerts to every client who has them turned on, and a stamp card.

What it doesn't do: it has no special hours by date (hours are weekly and one-off days are adjusted with blocks), it doesn't sell or take payment for gift cards online, and it has no automatic waiting list. For those three things, a notebook and your WhatsApp are still the most practical option. We tell you so that nothing catches you by surprise in the middle of Christmas.

The app is created and published for free in a few minutes. The Pro plan costs €9.90 a month VAT included, with no contract, so you can turn it on in November for a longer booking horizon and alerts at Christmas, and decide in January whether to keep it. If your business lives off its appointment book, we have pages made for hair salons, barbershops and beauty salons.

Frequently asked questions

How far ahead should a hair salon open Christmas bookings?
A sensible approach is to let your clients book the busy dates, 15 to 24 December, from the first half of November, and to tell your regulars in person before that. For that, your booking system needs to allow at least 45 or 60 days ahead: with a two-week horizon, the 23rd doesn't show up until the 10th.

Is it worth extending my opening hours in December?
Only if you'll fill them. Do the maths: in a barbershop with two chairs and 30-minute haircuts, each extra hour fits four appointments at most. Ten more hours in the busy fortnight are 40 appointments and €600 with a €15 haircut. It pays off if, at the start of December, the week of the 21st is already almost full; if not, you're better off saving your energy for that week.

How do I sell gift cards at my hair salon or barbershop?
Make a numbered card for a specific service or a round amount, redeemable from 7 January and with a generous, visible expiry date. Record every sale on a sheet, display it on the counter and in your app, and ask your accountant how to handle the VAT before you sell the first one.

How do I stop clients missing appointments at Christmas?
Ask for an email when they book so the app sends a reminder the day before, confirm long appointments by WhatsApp the evening before and keep a waiting list with each person's name, phone and the days that suit them. If someone says they can't come, mark the appointment as cancelled as soon as you know: the slot is free again and you can offer it to whoever was waiting.

What can I do so January isn't an empty month?
Do three things in December: offer every client their next appointment before they leave, sell gift cards redeemable from 7 January and prepare an offer only for the hours you know will be empty. If you need a holiday, January is a good time, as long as you announce it in December.

How we did the maths

The barbershop in the table is an example to show you the method, not data from any real business. Normal hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 14:00 and 16:30 to 20:30, eight hours a day. Between Tuesday 15 and Thursday 24 December 2026 there are seven full days (the 15th to the 19th, the 22nd and the 23rd) plus the morning of the 24th: 7 × 8 + 4 = 60 hours. With two chairs and 30-minute appointments, four appointments fit per hour: 60 × 4 = 240. The extra hours add all of Monday the 21st (8 hours) and one more hour on the evenings of the 22nd and 23rd (2 hours): 70 hours and 280 appointments. At €15 a haircut, 240 appointments are €3,600 and 280 are €4,200. The dates are those of the 2026 calendar. The booking horizon (14 days on the free plan; 30, 60 or 90 on Pro), blocks, appointments added by hand and the price of €9.90 a month have been checked in the app as of today. We don't use outside statistics: the figure that matters is the one in your own book.