Adding Public Holidays to New Outlook Calendar

Holidays are something we all look forward to, whether they’re bank holidays or national celebrations. However, when these dates change every year, ensuring you’ve got the correct information in your calendar becomes crucial for planning. I’m here to share how the new Outlook handles public holidays—though it works quite differently from classic Outlook.

Finding the Holiday Calendar Feature

When working in New Outlook’s calendar view, you need to locate the “Add Calendar” option in the calendar list.

New Outlook Public Holidays are in the Add Calendar option.

It’s at the top of the calendar lists, in the left navigation pane. That’s the list under the date navigator. Once you click, navigate down to the holidays section, which opens up the list of available options.

The selection available is quite impressive. you can choose from numerous countries around the globe, plus there are religious holiday options including Christian, Holy See Vatican City, Islamic (both Shia and Sunni), and Jewish calendars. Whilst the list won’t cover absolutely everything, it includes the key options most people would be looking for.

Adding Multiple Holiday Calendars

Select whichever countries or religious calendars you want ro add. You can choose multiple options at the same time.

New Outlook Public Holidays are added through holiday calendars.

Click to tick your chosen options, and then simply click the X to close the selection window.

Understanding How Holiday Calendars Work

Here’s where it gets interesting—and slightly different from what you might expect. These holidays appear as separate calendars rather than being added directly into your main calendar. You’ll see them displayed at the top of your calendar view, and when you navigate to months with public holidays (like August for the UK’s late summer bank holiday), they appear as all-day events.

Added holiday calendars appear on the left, under your main calendar.

If it looks like everything is displayed in the calendar, then you’ve got the overlay view (the new standard display). Not sure what I’m talking about, have a look at the video or blog – also linked at the end.

Important Limitations to Consider

There’s one crucial limitation to mention: because these are separate calendars, they won’t be included for an automatic reminder. If you want reminders for these holidays, you’ll need to either move them to your main calendar, copy them over, or import them as separate events if that option is available.

This difference from classic Outlook is a big change and something to keep in mind when planning your holidays.

Making the Most of Holiday Calendars

Despite this limitation, having public holidays automatically updated in your calendar is incredibly useful for planning meetings, holidays, and understanding when businesses might be closed. The visual reference alone makes it worthwhile, and you can always manually add important holidays to your main calendar if you need reminders.

Written with the help of Claude AI from an original transcription.

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