Amazon’s expansive global network requires a complex operational strategy to manage the intense volume of the holiday shopping season. Whether Amazon employees work on Christmas Day depends entirely on their specific role and division. The company’s policy balances the need to maintain essential infrastructure and services with the desire to grant time off to the vast majority of its logistics workforce. This distinction between hourly and salaried staff, and between physical operations and digital infrastructure, dictates who takes the holiday off and who remains on the clock.
Operations at Fulfillment Centers on Christmas Day
The majority of Amazon’s hourly associates, who work in the vast network of fulfillment centers, sortation centers, and delivery stations, do not work on Christmas Day. The company recognizes Christmas Day as a major paid holiday and generally mandates a full closure of these high-volume physical logistics facilities. This closure allows the massive workforce responsible for picking, packing, and shipping packages to have the day off.
Christmas Day is typically the singular non-negotiable closure for the logistics side of the business. Normal operations, including the resumption of mandatory overtime shifts, often begin almost immediately on December 26th to handle the post-holiday return and exchange volume.
Status of Last-Mile Delivery Services
The movement of packages to customers also ceases on December 25th, meaning no last-mile delivery services are active on Christmas Day. Both Amazon Logistics and external carrier partners like UPS and the United States Postal Service (USPS) close down their delivery operations for the holiday. This shutdown includes the network of third-party Delivery Service Partners (DSPs) and independent Amazon Flex drivers.
The closure ensures that drivers and delivery personnel are not expected to be on the road. The focus shifts to preparing for the immediate resumption of deliveries on the following day, which marks the start of the massive post-holiday returns and exchange period.
Essential Services and Corporate Staffing
While the physical movement of goods stops, a small but significant number of employees must remain on duty to maintain the company’s global digital infrastructure. These positions are considered essential and are typically filled by salaried or highly specialized staff. This group includes the teams responsible for Amazon Web Services (AWS), which powers a substantial portion of the internet and the company’s own e-commerce platform.
Additionally, a limited number of security personnel, essential maintenance crews for critical facilities, and specialized global customer service teams operate on Christmas Day. These employees handle immediate technical emergencies and infrastructure stability, preventing disruptions to the core technology that supports millions of websites.
Amazon’s Holiday Pay and Time Off Policies
Amazon provides eligible hourly employees with a paid holiday for Christmas Day, regardless of whether they are scheduled to work. This paid time off (PTO) is typically equivalent to eight hours of regular pay. For the small number of hourly employees whose roles require them to work on the holiday, they are compensated with a premium holiday pay rate.
This premium pay is generally calculated at one and a half times their regular hourly rate for all hours worked on December 25th. This means that an employee who works a full shift on Christmas Day receives the enhanced hourly rate, plus the standard eight hours of holiday pay. The policy provides a financial incentive for the few employees whose presence is necessary.
Scheduling During the Extended Holiday Season
The single day of full closure on Christmas Day is contrasted by the intense scheduling that defines the extended holiday period. The weeks leading up to the holiday are characterized by mandatory overtime (MET) for most hourly associates to handle the peak shopping volume. This demanding schedule typically involves an extra day of work per week.
Operations often run on adjusted schedules on Christmas Eve, with many facilities operating for a half-day or with reduced shifts before closing completely for the holiday. Full, high-volume operations resume on December 26th. This immediate ramp-up is necessary to manage the surge of returns, exchanges, and gift card redemptions that define the period between Christmas and the new year.