India - Leave Planner for 2026 - Lets GO....

Hey All,

We are just starting to enter the festival season and will bid farewell to 2025 pretty soon. People have already started creating leave planners for 2026, and here’s one such image I stumbled upon today while browsing my X feed. I found this image to be perfect, as it clearly showcases the holidays and how a few planned leaves can turn into long breaks that can be planned as extended vacations. So without a further ado lets lets go and see what kind of holiday planning we can do in the upcoming year, 2026...

source::

India - Leave Planner for 2026 - Month Wise Smart Leave Plan...

January – Start the Year with Multiple Breaks. Total Time Off that we can plan is around 14 days by just using 4 leaves. Here is the::-

Best Options

New Year Break (5 days) – Take 1 leave
Makar Sankranti Break (5 days) – Take 2 leaves
Republic Day Weekend (4 days) – No leave required

February & March are driving long weekends which is as follows::-

Maha Shivratri Break

Feb 14–15 (Weekend) + Feb 15 (Sun) – Maha Shivratri + Feb 16 ( Apply for leave)

Duration: 4 days
Leaves Required: 1

Holi Getaway

Duration: 5 days
Leaves Required: 2

Mar 2 ( Apply for leave) + Mar 3 (Tue) – Holi + Mar 4 (Apply for leave) + Mar 7–8 (Weekend)

April can be called as the Mega Holiday Stretch - but how? Here is is how it is possible.

Duration: 10 days
Leaves Required: 4

By combining Mahavir Jayanti, Good Friday, Easter, and weekends, April offers the longest continuous break of the year.

May – The Summer Refresh

Duration: 4 days
Leaves Required: 1

May 1 (Fri) – Buddha Purnima + May 2–3 (Weekend) + May 4 (Apply for leave)

August – Independence Day Vacation

Duration: 9 days
Leaves Required: 5

The Independence Day falling close to the weekend, August is perfect for a mid year recharge. How is it possible; here it the how part::

Aug 10–14 (Apply for Leave) + Aug 15 (Sat) – Independence Day 🇮🇳 + Aug 16 (Sun)

October – November – Festival Season Jackpot Arrives

Gandhi Jayanti Break

Duration: 5 days
Leaves Required: 2

Oct 2 (Fri) – Gandhi Jayanti + Oct 3–4 (Weekend) + Oct 5 & 6 (Appy for leave)

Diwali the festival of lights its a mega Vacation

Duration: 13 days
Leaves Required: 5

Nov 6 (Fri) – Dhanteras + Nov 7 & 8 (Weekend) + Nov 9 – Diwali Arrives + Nov 10 – Bhai Dooj + Nov 11 & 13 (Apply for Leave) + Nov 14 & 15 (Weekend)

December – End the Year back to square ONE

Christmas Natural Break there is no need to apply for a levae

Duration: 9 days

Leaves Required: 0

Dec 19 & 20 (Weekend) + Dec 25 (Fri) – Christmas + Dec 26 & 27 (Weekend)

Extended Year-End Vacation

Duration: 11 days

Leaves Required: 4

Dec 21 to 24 (Apply for leave) + Dec 25 – Christmas + Dec 26 & 27 (Weekend)

In summary some of the leave may not be part of your organization holiday calender but then there are optional holidays which can be considered and a few well placed leaves can turn into long vacations. Looking at the above plan, apart from June and July, every month offers a decent number of holidays. My favourite month appears to be December. Apart from the listed holidays, this is also the time of year to consider PTO (paid time off) carry forwards. If you have spare leaves remaining, December seems to be the ideal month to use them. Well this should be it for todays post on - "India - Leave Planner for 2026 - Lets GO...." Happy Planning Vacation for 2026 well in advance... cheers

Image Source:: x.com/Dhanush_Nehru

Best Regards
Paras