Indiana’s Parenting Time Guidelines assign each holiday to one parent on an alternating odd-year/even-year rotation, with set start and end times for every date. Holiday parenting time always overrides the regular weekly schedule, so if your normal weekend falls inside the other parent’s holiday, you lose it and cannot make it up. The Indiana parenting time holiday schedule splits holidays into two groups that flip each year, plus separate rules for Christmas vacation, birthdays, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day.
How the Alternating Rotation Works
Holidays fall into two groups. One group goes to the noncustodial parent in even-numbered years and the custodial parent in odd-numbered years. The other group runs the opposite pattern. Over any two-year span, both parents share the major holidays.
If parents share equal parenting time rather than using a custodial and noncustodial arrangement, the school calendar of the parent paying controlled expenses determines the holiday schedule.1Indiana Courts. Section II – Specific Parenting Time Provisions
The override rule catches parents off guard. Holiday time trumps the regular alternating-weekend rotation both ways. If a holiday hands you two weekends back to back, you also keep the third weekend before the rotation resets.1Indiana Courts. Section II – Specific Parenting Time Provisions
Group One Holidays: Noncustodial in Even Years, Custodial in Odd Years
- Martin Luther King Day: Friday at 6:00 PM through Monday at 6:00 PM, but only if the child’s school observes the holiday.
- Presidents’ Day: Friday at 6:00 PM through Monday at 6:00 PM, again only if the school observes it.
- Memorial Day: Friday at 6:00 PM through Monday at 6:00 PM.
- Labor Day: Friday at 6:00 PM through Monday at 6:00 PM.
- Thanksgiving: Wednesday at 6:00 PM through Sunday at 6:00 PM.
Watch the school-observance condition on Martin Luther King Day and Presidents’ Day. If the school stays open, there is no separate holiday parenting time for those days and the regular schedule controls.
Group Two Holidays: Noncustodial in Odd Years, Custodial in Even Years
- Spring Break: From 6:00 PM on the child’s last day of school before break through 6:00 PM the day before school resumes.
- Easter: Friday at 6:00 PM through Sunday at 6:00 PM.
Christmas Vacation
Christmas runs on its own rule. The entire school winter break is divided in half, and the halves alternate. In even-numbered years the custodial parent takes the first half and the noncustodial parent takes the second half. In odd-numbered years, it flips.2Indiana Courts. Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines
The break starts at 6:00 PM on the child’s last day of school and ends at 6:00 PM the day before school resumes. No exchange can happen after 9:00 PM or before 8:00 AM unless both parents agree otherwise.
There is a built-in Christmas Day carve-out. If Christmas Day itself does not fall inside your half of the break, you still get the child on Christmas Day from noon to 9:00 PM. Neither parent completely misses Christmas Day in any given year.2Indiana Courts. Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines
New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are not separate holidays. They fall to whichever parent has that half of the Christmas break.
Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Birthdays
A handful of days ignore the alternating pattern and go to the same parent every year.
- Mother’s Day: Always with the child’s mother, Friday at 6:00 PM through Sunday at 6:00 PM.
- Father’s Day: Always with the child’s father, Friday at 6:00 PM through Sunday at 6:00 PM.
- A parent’s birthday: Always with that parent, 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. If the birthday lands on a school day, the window shrinks to 5:00 PM through 8:00 PM.
The child’s birthday alternates. In even-numbered years the noncustodial parent has all the children on the actual birthday from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM, and the custodial parent has them the day before during the same hours. In odd-numbered years, those assignments swap. When the birthday is a school day, both the birthday and the day-before window shrink to 5:00 PM through 8:00 PM.2Indiana Courts. Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines
Two overlap rules matter here. If a child’s birthday falls during another parent’s holiday or Christmas vacation, the birthday is celebrated with whichever parent already has the child. A parent’s own birthday, by contrast, loses to holidays and Christmas vacation when they conflict.
Summer and Other Extended Breaks
The noncustodial parent gets half of summer vacation. Summer runs from the day after the child’s last day of school through the day before the new school year begins. The noncustodial parent can take this time in one block or split it into two segments, and must notify the custodial parent of the chosen dates by April 1. Miss that deadline and the custodial parent makes the selection instead. A timely selection cannot be rejected by the other parent.2Indiana Courts. Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines
Both parents must share any employer-imposed vacation restrictions with each other as soon as that information becomes available.
For children in year-round or balanced-calendar schools, the noncustodial parent’s extended time is half of the fall and spring school breaks instead. Unless parents agree otherwise, the noncustodial parent takes the first half of each break in odd years and the second half in even years.2Indiana Courts. Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines
When parents live far enough apart that standard weekly exchanges are impractical, a separate distance-based schedule applies. For children five and older on a traditional school calendar, the noncustodial parent receives seven weeks of summer, seven days of winter break, and the entire spring break including both adjacent weekends, with religious holidays still alternating by year.2Indiana Courts. Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines
If the Other Parent Blocks Your Holiday Time
If a custodial parent intentionally blocks the other parent’s scheduled time without justifiable cause, the court is required to hold that parent in contempt and order makeup parenting time at a schedule compatible with the noncustodial parent’s and child’s availability. The court also has discretion to award reasonable attorney fees and costs and to order community service.3Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 31-17-4 – Parenting Time Rights of Noncustodial Parent
A noncustodial parent who pays child support regularly and is being blocked from court-ordered parenting time can also file for an injunction. In urgent situations, the court can issue a temporary restraining order without advance notice to the other parent, based solely on the noncustodial parent’s sworn affidavit.3Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 31-17-4 – Parenting Time Rights of Noncustodial Parent
These remedies are described as additions to any other civil or criminal remedies available under Indiana law.3Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 31-17-4 – Parenting Time Rights of Noncustodial Parent
Document everything if you are the parent on the receiving end. Save text messages, note the exact dates and times of missed exchanges, and keep any communication where the other parent acknowledges withholding the child. Courts weigh this evidence heavily.
Changing the Schedule
The guidelines are a starting point, not a permanent lock. Under Indiana Code 31-17-4-2, a court can modify any parenting time order whenever the change would serve the child’s best interests. Indiana does not require proof of a substantial change in circumstances to adjust parenting time. The standard is simply the child’s best interests.3Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 31-17-4 – Parenting Time Rights of Noncustodial Parent
One hard limit applies. A court cannot restrict a parent’s parenting time unless it finds the time with that parent could endanger the child’s physical health or significantly impair the child’s emotional development. Cutting holiday time for one parent is a restriction, so ordinary disagreements are not enough.3Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 31-17-4 – Parenting Time Rights of Noncustodial Parent
Parents can also agree to modify the schedule informally, but undocumented verbal agreements are risky. If a dispute later arises, the original court order controls unless the modification was formally approved by the court.