Holiday hours notice: sign, Google, email and social

Who it's for

Any shop, restaurant, contractor, salon or office that closes or shortens hours around Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's and wants every channel to say the same thing.

The situation today

• Holiday hours usually get typed separately on the door, the website, Google and social media, and one of them ends up with the wrong day or time.
• Customers check Google and your website before they drive over, so a notice that only lives on the door doesn't reach them.
• Rough estimate: 5 to 10 minutes per channel when you write each notice from scratch.

Time figures marked "rough estimate" are our estimates, not survey data.

The AI-assisted workflow

Step by step

1. Decide your hours first. Write one list: each day that changes between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, with its date, day of the week and hours (or Closed), plus the date regular hours start again.
2. Add how customers can reach you for anything urgent, or say there's no urgent line.
3. Paste the list into your AI assistant with the prompt below. It writes a door sign, website line, social post, customer email and voicemail message from the same facts.
4. Check every date, day of the week and time in each version against your list. Fix anything that's off before you copy it anywhere.
5. On Google, add Special hours for each changed day: go to your Business Profile, select Edit profile, then Hours, then Edit next to Special hours. Pick or add the date, enter the hours or check Closed, and select Save.
6. Put up the sign, update your website, post the social version, send the email and record the voicemail. Set a reminder to take the notices down when regular hours return.

You help me tell customers about holiday hours for my [type of business] in [town].
Here are my real hours. Use only these, exactly as written:
[day, date: hours or Closed]
[day, date: hours or Closed]
Regular hours start again on: [date].
For anything urgent, customers can: [phone, email, or 'no urgent line'].

Write five versions with exactly the same facts:
1) A door sign, under 25 words.
2) One line for the top of my website.
3) A social post under 60 words, friendly, no hashtags.
4) A short email to regular customers, with a subject line.
5) A voicemail or auto-reply message under 40 words.
Write the day of the week next to every date. Do not add hours, dates, sales or offers I haven't listed. If something is missing, write [MISSING] instead of guessing.

Works in any AI chat assistant. Replace everything in [brackets].

Watch-outs

• AI can get a day of the week wrong. Thanksgiving 2026 is Thursday, November 26, and Christmas Day is Friday, December 25 (OPM's 2026 federal holiday schedule). Check every date in the draft.
• Google says special hours are for short changes: you can set them when you adjust hours or close for up to 6 days in a row. For 7 or more days in a row, Google says to mark the business Temporarily closed instead.
• Google says special hours only show on your profile when your business hours are set to 'Open with main hours'.
• You only need your hours and a public phone or email. Don't paste customer lists, staff schedules or anyone's personal details.

When not to use AI

• Deciding your hours. AI doesn't know your staffing or your customers; decide first, then let it write.
• Staff holiday pay or scheduling rules. Those depend on your state, so check with your accountant or attorney.

Educational content, not legal, tax or financial advice.