India · Festival travel
Christmas 2026 is on Friday, 25 December 2026. Below is the exact day and time IRCTC booking opens for every date in the Christmas rush — going and coming back — under the 60-day rule, with the Tatkal dates alongside.
Christmas 2026
Fri 25 Dec
Busiest outbound day
Thu 24 Dec
General booking opens for that day
Sun 25 Oct · 08:00
Tatkal for that day
Wed 23 Dec · 10:00 / 11:00
All times IST. General booking is 60 days ahead excluding the journey day; Tatkal is one day ahead. Fixed date every year.
From 21 December 2026 to 25 December 2026. The named days are the festival itself; the days before them are when most people travel.
| Journey date | General booking opens | Tatkal AC · 10:00 | Tatkal SL · 11:00 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| · 08:00 | 20 Dec | 20 Dec | — | |
| · 08:00 | 21 Dec | 21 Dec | — | |
| · 08:00 | 22 Dec | 22 Dec | — | |
| Christmas Eve | · 08:00 | 23 Dec | 23 Dec | — |
| Christmas Day | · 08:00 | 24 Dec | 24 Dec | — |
From 1 January 2027 to 4 January 2027. Return tickets open later than outbound ones, and are the ones people forget to book on the day.
| Journey date | General booking opens | Tatkal AC · 10:00 | Tatkal SL · 11:00 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Year’s Day | · 08:00 | 31 Dec | 31 Dec | — |
| · 08:00 | 1 Jan | 1 Jan | — | |
| · 08:00 | 2 Jan | 2 Jan | — | |
| · 08:00 | 3 Jan | 3 Jan | — |
Festival demand cuts cancellations sharply, so waitlists move less than usual. Check the honest odds for your GNWL, RLWL or PQWL number before you decide whether to gamble on Tatkal.
School winter breaks, Goa and Kerala beach traffic and the Christmas homecoming across Kerala, Goa, Mumbai and the North-East all land in the same ten days.
Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Delhi to Goa (Madgaon, Thivim), Kerala (Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam), Shillong-bound Guwahati, and the hill routes to Kathgodam and Kalka.
Christmas 2026 falls on Friday, 25 December 2026. Under the 60-day Advance Reservation Period, general booking for travel on that day opens on Monday, 26 October 2026 at 08:00 IST. For the busiest outbound day, 24 December 2026, booking opens on 25 October 2026. Each journey date opens on its own day, 60 days ahead, so the tables above list every date in the rush.
General-quota reservation opens at 08:00 IST on the day the 60-day window reaches your journey date. Tatkal is separate: it opens at 10:00 IST for AC classes and 11:00 IST for Sleeper and other non-AC classes, one day before the journey. Only Aadhaar-authenticated IRCTC accounts can book Tatkal online.
Tatkal opens one day before each journey date. For travel on 24 December 2026, that is 23 December 2026 — 10:00 IST for AC classes and 11:00 IST for Sleeper. The Tatkal quota is small and festival demand is extreme, so treat it as a backup to a general booking made on the day the window opened, not as the plan.
Book immediately even if the train shows a waitlist — a low GNWL number booked early still confirms on most trains, and the queue only gets longer. Then check the confirmation odds for your waitlist code, and note the Tatkal date for the same journey as a fallback one day before travel.
Not always. Festival specials are notified separately, often only a few weeks before they run, and their booking opens when the notification says, which can be shorter than 60 days. The dates on this page are for regular trains. Check the IRCTC and zonal railway announcements for specials on your route once the festival is a few weeks away.
Fixed date every year. The dates here were checked against Drik Panchang and the mainstream Indian calendars. If your family follows a regional calendar that puts the festival a day earlier or later, use the tables to read off the booking date for that day instead.
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Last reviewed
September 15, 2026
Content update
Auto-updated on Jun 28, 2026
Scope: Festival dates are taken from the published panchang and can differ by a day between regional calendars. Booking dates follow the 60-day Advance Reservation Period for regular trains; festival special trains are notified separately with their own windows.