Massachusetts Alcohol Sales Hours: Bars, Stores, and Holidays

In Massachusetts, alcohol sales hours split along two lines: bars and restaurants can serve until 2:00 AM, while package stores and other retailers must stop selling by 11:00 PM. Sunday hours are shorter on both sides, and Thanksgiving, Christmas, Memorial Day, and local election days each come with their own restrictions. The state sets the outer limits; your city or town decides what happens inside them.

Bar and Restaurant Hours

Establishments licensed to serve drinks on the premises — restaurants, hotels, taverns, clubs — cannot sell alcohol between 2:00 AM and 8:00 AM on weekdays or Saturdays.¹ The widest legal window is 8:00 AM to 2:00 AM, though most bars operate on narrower hours approved by their local licensing authority.

Sundays are tighter. On-premise sales are prohibited between 1:00 AM and 10:00 AM, which means a Saturday-night bar closes at 2:00 AM and cannot pour again until 10:00 AM Sunday.² Towns that have accepted Section 33A can let their bars keep serving until 2:00 AM on Sunday mornings, matching every other night of the week.³

Expect last call 15 to 30 minutes before the legal cutoff, since staff need time to clear drinks before the clock hits 2:00.

Liquor Store and Package Store Hours

Retailers selling for off-premise consumption can sell alcohol between 8:00 AM and 11:00 PM, Monday through Saturday. The night before a legal holiday, that window stretches by half an hour, closing at 11:30 PM.⁴

Sunday sales run from 10:00 AM to 11:00 PM. The morning opening moved from noon to 10:00 AM in 2014.⁵ If you need beer or wine for a Sunday cookout, plan on mid-morning at the earliest.

Holidays When You Cannot Buy Alcohol

Massachusetts keeps some of the strictest holiday alcohol rules in the country, and the rules differ depending on whether you are buying at a store or a bar.

At Package Stores

Off-premise sales are banned outright on two holidays and partially banned on a third:

Thanksgiving: package stores must stay closed all day.
Christmas: same all-day ban as Thanksgiving.
Memorial Day: no sales before noon; regular hours resume after that through 11:00 PM.

These rules come from Section 33 of Chapter 138, and there is no workaround. Buy anything you need for Thanksgiving or Christmas the day before. Wineries, breweries, and distilleries operating under Section 19B, 19C, or 19E licenses are the narrow exception; they can sell bottles to take home on Sundays and legal holidays.²

At Bars and Restaurants

On-premise rules bend a little further. On Christmas and Memorial Day, bars and restaurants cannot serve between 1:00 AM and noon (2:00 AM and noon in Suffolk County).² Normal service picks back up at noon. In towns that have accepted Section 33B, on-premise licensees can start pouring as early as 10:00 AM on those holidays.⁶

Election Day Restrictions

On days when a state or municipal election, caucus, or primary is held, package stores in that city or town cannot sell alcohol during polling hours. The ban lifts only if the local licensing authority issues an order exempting all licensees.² Many towns do grant that exemption, but not all. If you are counting on the liquor store being open on election day, call ahead.

Why Hours Vary From Town to Town

State law sets the ceiling, but the local licensing authority — usually the board of selectmen or a licensing commission — sets the actual hours for each establishment.¹ A restaurant in one town might close at midnight; a bar two miles into the next town might run until 2:00 AM.

Sections 33A and 33B are opt-in provisions. A municipality that has accepted Section 33A can authorize on-premise sales between 1:00 AM and 2:00 AM on Sundays and certain holidays.³ One that has accepted Section 33B can authorize morning sales between 10:00 AM and noon on Sundays and holidays otherwise blocked by Section 33.⁶ Alcohol availability is genuinely patchy across the state as a result. The Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission can direct you to your local licensing authority when you need to check specific hours.⁷

Delivery Follows the Same Clock

Package stores can deliver alcohol, but only if they hold an ABCC transportation permit for each vehicle, and each driver must carry the permit and an itemized invoice listing the buyer, seller, date, and contents.⁸ The store’s regular sale hours apply to deliveries too: since a package store cannot sell after 11:00 PM, it cannot legally deliver after 11:00 PM either.

Bars and restaurants are barred from delivering alcohol off the premises entirely.⁸ Third-party delivery apps can only handle orders from off-premise licensees, and only within those licensees’ legal selling hours.

One Thing the Hours Do Not Get You: Happy Hour

Massachusetts has prohibited discounted drink specials since 1984. No on-premise licensee may offer time-limited drink discounts, two-for-one deals, or reduced prices on alcohol at any point during their operating hours. Food specials at traditional happy hour times are common, but the drinks stay at full price no matter when you walk in.

1
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 138, Section 12 – Licenses Authorizing Sale of Beverages to Be Drunk on Premises
2
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 138 Section 33 – Sales and Deliveries Restrictions
3
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 138, Section 33A – Sales on Sundays and Certain Legal Holidays
4
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 138 Section 15 – Off-Premises Retail Sales Licenses
5
Mass.gov. ABCC Advisory on Package Store Sunday Opening Hours
6
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 138, Section 33B – Authorization of Earlier Sales on Sundays and Holidays
7
Mass.gov. Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission
8
Mass.gov. Transportation (Delivery) Permit (ABCC)