How to Add Holidays to Google Calendar (All Devices Covered)

Google Calendar doesn't show public holidays by default — they live in a separate, optional calendar layer you can subscribe to in a few taps or clicks. Once enabled, holidays appear automatically on the correct dates, update themselves, and can be shown or hidden without deleting anything. Here's how the whole system works, and what to keep in mind depending on your setup.

How Google Calendar Handles Holidays

Google maintains a library of regional holiday calendars — essentially pre-built, read-only calendars organized by country. When you subscribe to one, it overlays public holidays onto your main calendar view as a distinct color-coded layer. You're not creating individual events; you're subscribing to a living feed that Google maintains.

This means:

• Holidays update automatically (useful for countries where dates shift, like Easter or Thanksgiving)
• You can toggle the entire holiday calendar on or off without losing your own events
• The same holiday feed syncs across every device where you're signed into that Google account

Adding Holidays on Desktop (Google Calendar Website)

1. Open calendar.google.com in your browser
2. Look at the left sidebar and find "Other calendars"
3. Click the "+" (plus) icon next to it
4. Select "Browse calendars of interest"
5. Scroll to the "Holidays" section — you'll see calendars organized by region and country
6. Click the checkbox next to your country or region
7. Click the back arrow to return to your main calendar

The holiday calendar now appears in your sidebar under "Other calendars" with its own color. Every public holiday for that region populates your calendar view immediately.

Adding Holidays on Android 📱

The Google Calendar app for Android handles this slightly differently depending on your app version:

1. Open the Google Calendar app
2. Tap the three-line menu (hamburger icon) in the top left
3. Scroll down and tap "Settings"
4. Tap "Holidays in [Your Country]" if it appears — or tap "Birthdays" to see the full "Add calendar" list
5. Alternatively, tap your email address listed under accounts, then look for a "Holidays" toggle

If you don't see a pre-populated holidays option, use the desktop method — changes sync to your app automatically within a few minutes.

Adding Holidays on iPhone and iPad (iOS) 🍎

Google Calendar's iOS app doesn't always surface the holiday subscription option directly. The most reliable method:

1. Open Google Calendar on your iPhone or iPad
2. Tap the three-line menu in the top left
3. Tap "Settings"
4. Under your Google account, check whether a "Holidays" calendar is listed — if so, tap it and toggle it on

If that option isn't visible in the app, subscribe using the desktop browser instead. The holiday calendar will appear across all your devices once added to your account.

What If You Want Holidays From Multiple Countries?

Google lets you subscribe to more than one regional holiday calendar. If you work across time zones or have family in another country, you can add, say, both US Holidays and UK Holidays simultaneously. Each one gets its own color, so they're visually distinguishable.

To add additional regions, repeat the desktop process above and select additional countries from the holidays list.

Managing and Customizing Your Holiday Calendar

Once subscribed, you have several options:

One thing worth noting: because these are subscribed (read-only) feeds, you can't edit or delete individual holiday events. If a regional holiday isn't relevant to you, the only options are to hide the entire calendar or create a separate calendar layer where you manage exceptions yourself.

Factors That Affect How This Works for You

Not everyone's experience looks the same, and a few variables determine what you'll actually see:

Your Google account region — Google may pre-select a holiday calendar based on the country tied to your account settings. If the auto-suggested holidays don't match where you actually live or work, you'll want to manually browse and select the correct country calendar.

App version — Older versions of the Google Calendar mobile app have different menu structures. If the steps above don't match what you're seeing, updating the app often resolves navigation differences.

Shared or work accounts — If you use Google Calendar through a Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) account managed by an employer or school, your administrator may have restricted which calendars you can add or view. Personal Gmail accounts don't have this limitation.

Which holidays appear — Google's regional calendars follow official public holidays for that country, but they don't cover every observance. Regional, religious, or informal holidays may not appear automatically, and what counts as a "public holiday" varies by country.

Sync timing — After subscribing on desktop, it can take a few minutes for the holiday calendar to appear across all your mobile devices. If it doesn't appear within 10–15 minutes, pulling down to refresh or signing out and back in usually resolves it.

When the Built-In Holidays Aren't Enough

Some users find Google's default regional calendars cover 90% of what they need. Others — particularly those working internationally, managing multicultural teams, or tracking religious observances — find the built-in options too limited.

In those cases, third-party calendar subscriptions (distributed as .ics feeds) can be imported into Google Calendar through the "From URL" option under "Other calendars." This adds an additional layer of setup and depends on finding a reliable, maintained source for the specific calendar type you need.

Whether the built-in holiday calendars are sufficient, or whether you need to supplement them, depends almost entirely on what you're actually trying to track and which regions or observances matter to your specific situation.