Routines
Keeping Bedtime Through the Holidays
4 min read
Holiday periods are where bedtime routines go to die: no nursery, visitors staying, meals at strange times, over-excited cousins, and at least one evening that runs three hours long.
Trying to hold the normal schedule through all of that is usually a losing battle. Deciding in advance which parts you'll defend is not.
Defend the sequence, not the clock
A routine's power comes from its order, not its timing. Teeth, pajamas, bed, stories, goodnight ritual — run in that order at 9:30pm in someone else's spare room, it still reads as bedtime to your child. Run out of order at the usual time, it doesn't.
Decide the minimum sequence before the season starts and treat it as non-negotiable, however late things run.
Pick your late nights deliberately
Two or three genuinely late nights across a fortnight is manageable. Every night running an hour over is not. Choose which events are worth it, and go early and boring on the days in between rather than letting the whole period drift.
Manage the excitement, not just the timing
- Get outside during the day — the biggest predictor of a decent night over the holidays is usually how much fresh air and movement happened before 4pm.
- Move the exciting parts of the day earlier where you can. New toys at 6pm are a bad idea.
- Build in a quiet hour before the routine starts, even if the house is full.
- Give relatives a briefing. Grandparents doing bedtime is lovely; grandparents doing four stories and a wrestle is a two-hour bedtime.
Sleeping somewhere else
In another house, bring the comfort object, something that smells of home, and a way to make the room dark. Then keep the routine's ending identical — the same stories, the same goodnight words — because that's the part your child uses to work out that this strange room is still bedtime.
Plan the re-entry
Give yourself two quiet evenings at home before nursery or school restarts, with early bedtimes and the full normal routine. It's much easier than trying to reset on the night before term starts, and it's the single most useful thing you can put in the calendar.
Common questions
- How do I keep a bedtime routine over the holidays?
- Defend the sequence rather than the clock. The same order — teeth, pajamas, bed, stories, goodnight ritual — reads as bedtime even at 9:30pm in a spare room, whereas the right time in the wrong order doesn't.
- How many late nights can a toddler handle?
- Two or three across a fortnight is generally manageable if the days in between are early and quiet. Nightly drift is what causes the real problems.
- How do I get back to normal after the holidays?
- Plan two quiet evenings at home with early bedtimes and the full routine before nursery or school restarts, rather than trying to reset the night before term begins.
Tonight's story, ready to read
Original illustrated bedtime stories for ages 2+, by a professional narrator or in your own recorded voice. Some are free — no account needed.