Spending Christmas in an airport might feel like the kind of gift someone on the naughty list might receive. After all, the week around Christmas makes for one of the busiest times to fly, and airports keep getting busier.
If you must fly for the holidays, some days are less crowded than others. Christmas Day is historically the least crowded travel day during the holiday week, and there are some other days that tend to be especially good for travel, too.
An analysis of the past five years (2021–2025) of TSA travel data reveals what travel is likely to look like this December. Lower demand generally correlates to lower prices, so the best days to fly around Christmas are usually the ones with fewer crowds.
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Two best strategies for Christmas travel
There are two strategies for saving money and avoiding crowds on holiday flights around Christmas: either traveling on a holiday, or departing earlier and returning later.
Best for avoiding crowds: Traveling on the holiday
Looking at average TSA screening numbers from 2021 to 2025, within the seven days before and after Christmas Day, Dec. 25 itself stood out as the least-crowded day for flying.
Next-best option: Departing earlier and returning later
If flying on Christmas is not an option, extending your trip by leaving earlier and returning later is your next-best bet.
Based on five years of data, these are the least crowded days to fly in the seven days before and after Christmas, once you set aside Christmas Day and Christmas Eve:
Least-crowded dates for traveling around Christmas are:
- New Year's Eve (Thursday, Dec. 31): The single quietest non-holiday day in our analysis — even quieter, on average, than Christmas Eve.
- New Year's Day (Friday, Jan. 1): The next-quietest option.
- The Friday two weeks before Christmas (Dec. 18, 2026): Typically the calmest of the "far out" travel days.
Because Christmas 2026 falls on a Friday, expect the standard weekend-before and weekend-after crush to line up a bit differently than in years when Christmas lands midweek. There's a strong possibility even more people travel this year to take advantage of the long weekend, but the underlying pattern of "holidays are quiet, the days surrounding them are not" holds regardless of which day of the week Christmas falls on.
Why 2026 could be different: This holiday season includes two long weekends
And it's not just Christmas that falls on a Friday in 2026 — so does New Year's Day. With that, both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve land on Thursdays, creating two sets of four-day weekends for people who get those holidays off of work.
That means in between those two long weekends sits just three working days (Monday, Dec. 28, through Wednesday, Dec. 30), offering a chance for 11 days of break to anyone who is willing to sacrifice just three days of PTO.
The last time Christmas fell on a Friday was in 2020, so using pandemic-era travel patterns makes for a poor comparison point. However, it's likely that the usual "quiet week" between Christmas and New Year's may not be so quiet this time. In most years, the period between Dec. 26 and Dec. 30 is filled with a mix of people returning from Christmas or heading out for New Year's. But with only three working days separating two four-day weekends, more people than usual may treat the entire stretch as one long trip rather than popping home in between, in turn pushing crowding higher on the weekends. With that, expect heavy demand the weekend before Christmas and the weekend after New Year's.
Is Christmas Day a good day to fly?
Assuming you don't mind spending part of your holiday in the air, Christmas Day or Christmas Eve are the best days to fly during the last two weeks of the year.
While airport crowds dramatically increase in the days before and after the holiday, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day crowds remain comparatively light. In 2025, roughly 2.07 million people were screened at airports on Christmas Day itself, which is noticeably fewer than the nearly 2.92 million screened the following Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025 (one of that year's busiest days).
As far as the return flight goes, you'll likely also save by flying as far from Christmas Day as possible. The least busy days to fly post-Christmas are typically the other two holidays bookending the new year: New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
The most crowded days to fly around Christmas
Based on five years of TSA data (2021–2025), the busiest travel days tend to be clustered around the roughly three to four days before Christmas, as well as the period right around New Year's as travelers return home. For Christmas 2026, that lines up with:
- Monday, Dec. 21.
- Tuesday, Dec. 22.
- Wednesday, Dec. 23.
- Tuesday, Dec. 29.
- Wednesday, Dec. 30.
Unlike Thanksgiving, which always falls on a Thursday, Christmas lands on a different day of the week every year — so the specific weekday names attached to "the busiest days" shift year to year. What stays consistent is the pattern: the days clustered a few days out from Christmas and from New Year's are the ones to avoid if you have any flexibility.
Cards that earn rewards when booking flights
Regardless of which day you decide to fly, using a credit card that earns extra rewards can be a smart money move. Here's a selection of cards that offer flight booking perks:
Flight booking benefits
• 5 points per dollar spent on travel (including flights) booked through Chase.
• 2 points per dollar on other travel (including flights).
Annual fee: $95.
• 5 points per dollar spent on flights booked directly with airlines or through American Express' travel portal (on up to $500K per calendar year). Terms apply.
Annual fee: $895.
• 3 points per dollar spent on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com. Terms apply.
Annual fee: $325.
• 3 points per dollar spent on air travel.
Annual fee: $95.
Tips for booking better Christmas travel
During the week of Christmas, the standard rules around the best (and worst) days to fly don’t necessarily apply. You might not have a choice around where to travel for Christmas, but you likely have at least some flexibility around travel dates.
Often, shifting your itinerary by just a couple of days can drastically change the price you pay for holiday travel. If you can be a bit flexible, avoid the worst of the surge and try:
Flying the previous week: Crowds ease up the farther away from Christmas you get, so if you can work remotely or afford to take days off, do it. While crowds will likely be high in the days ahead of Christmas, they’ll likely be lighter on the Monday and Tuesday the week before.
Traveling on Christmas or Christmas Eve: For the smoothest experience, fly on Christmas Day itself. If it's important that you're at your destination by Christmas morning, leaving on Christmas Eve is your best move.
Booking morning flights: Flights departing earlier in the day are generally less prone to delays and cancellations than evening flights — one more reason to consider a Christmas Day departure if you're up for it.
Skipping holiday travel completely: Consider shifting your celebration by a couple of days or weeks. January and February tend to be the cheapest months to fly, so you might want to wait to visit family and friends until then.
To view rates and fees of the American Express Platinum Card®, see this page.
To view rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, see this page.
How to maximize your rewards
You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are some of the best travel credit cards of 2026:
- Flexibility, point transfers and a large bonus: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- No annual fee: Wells Fargo Autograph® Card
- Flat-rate travel rewards: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
- Bonus travel rewards and high-end perks: Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- Luxury perks: American Express Platinum Card®
- Business travelers: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
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