Make talent quality your leading analytic with skills-based hiring solution.
Is holiday season capitalized? When you type “holiday season” into a document, you might pause and wonder about the proper formatting. The answer is no, not unless it begins a sentence. But that simple question opens the door to a much bigger conversation about what the holiday season actually means. For some, it’s a time to unwind. For others, it’s the most demanding stretch of the entire year.
The reality is that Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s don’t mean the same thing to everyone. While many people are booking flights to visit family or taking paid time off to relax, millions of others are clocking in for their longest shifts. The holiday season is deeply personal, but it’s also an economic engine that runs on the labor of people who rarely get to enjoy the very experience they help create for others.
If you work in an office or a corporate job, chances are you’ve circled late November and December on your calendar as vacation time. You might plan a trip, host a dinner, or simply enjoy a few quiet days at home. The holiday season, in this context, feels like a reward at the end of a long year.
But when families come together for holidays, hotels often see a surge in travelers checking in. Front desk staff, housekeepers, and concierge teams work around the clock to keep operations running smoothly. Restaurants see reservation books fill weeks in advance. Line cooks, servers, and dishwashers put in 12-hour days to accommodate the surge. Retail employees brace for Black Friday crowds and the relentless pace of holiday shopping, often sacrificing their own Thanksgiving dinners to prepare for early morning store openings.
The same pattern repeats across industries. Walk into an airport terminal on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and you’ll see a different picture. TSA agents are screening thousands of passengers per hour. Gate agents are managing delayed flights and frustrated travelers. Baggage handlers are moving luggage in freezing temperatures, often working double shifts to keep up with demand. For them, the holiday season isn’t about rest. It’s about survival.
The TSA projected screening 18.3 million people from Tuesday, November 26 to Monday, December 2, 2024, representing a volume increase of approximately 6% from 2023.
For many businesses, this period isn’t just busy. It’s essential. Retailers can generate up to 30% of their annual revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That makes the holiday season a make-or-break window for profitability. Small business owners, especially those in hospitality, tourism, or specialty retail, depend on holiday traffic to carry them through slower months.
Delivery services experience similar pressure. Drivers for FedEx, UPS, Amazon, and USPS work extended hours to meet shipping deadlines. The volume of packages moving through the system during November and December can triple compared to other months. For gig workers delivering groceries or restaurant orders, the holiday season offers an opportunity to earn more, but it also means working nights, weekends, and actual holidays when demand peaks.
Customer support teams also see a spike. Whether it’s handling product returns, troubleshooting tech issues with new devices, or fielding travel-related inquiries, call centers and help desks are fully staffed during this time. The people on the other end of the phone are often working while the rest of their family celebrates.
According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in the 2024 holiday buildup retailers added about 492,000 seasonal jobs between October and December.
It’s worth pausing to consider what this means on a personal level. Many of the workers keeping holiday operations running don’t get to participate in the traditions others take for granted. A hotel manager might miss Thanksgiving dinner with their kids because they’re overseeing a fully booked property. A flight attendant could spend Christmas Eve on a red-eye instead of wrapping presents at home. A retail associate might work until midnight on Black Friday, then return for an opening shift the next morning.
These aren’t isolated cases. They represent the lived reality of millions of people whose jobs are essential to the holiday experience of others. And while some industries offer holiday pay or bonuses as compensation, the trade-off is still significant. You can’t get back the time you miss with family, and no paycheck fully replaces that.
At the same time, many of these workers appreciate the opportunity. The extra income can be meaningful, especially for those supporting families or paying down debt. Some genuinely enjoy the energy of a busy season and take pride in their role in making holidays special for others. The issue isn’t that people work during holidays. It’s that we don’t often recognize or value that work in proportion to its importance.
According to The Points Guy, the Transportation Security Administration reported that December 1, 2024 (the Sunday after Thanksgiving), was the busiest air-travel day in U.S. history, with more than 3 million passengers screened.
So, is “holiday season” capitalized? No, but maybe the question itself matters because it asks us to think more carefully about what the term represents. The holiday season isn’t one universal experience. It’s a label that covers vastly different realities depending on where you stand.
For those who get time off, it’s a season of gratitude, connection, and rest. For those who work through it, it’s a test of endurance, a financial opportunity, or simply another set of shifts on the schedule. Both experiences are valid. Both deserve acknowledgment.
As we move through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, it’s worth remembering that the stocked store shelves, the smooth travel, the delivered packages, and the answered support calls don’t happen automatically. They happen because people show up to work when others don’t have to. The holiday season might not be capitalized in grammar, but the effort behind it certainly should be recognized in how we treat and compensate the people who make it possible.
The next time you check into a hotel, board a flight, or pick up a last-minute gift, consider the person on the other side of that transaction. They’re not just doing a job. They’re enabling your holiday to happen, often at the cost of their own.
Staffing has always been about matching people to the right job at the right time. Recruiters spend hours reviewing resumes, scheduling calls, and keeping track of candidates who may or may not be a fit. The work is important, but it can also be slow and tiring, especially when hiring needs suddenly increase. Today, AI […]
Recruiting top talent has never been simple. Resumes pile up, screening calls take hours, and interviews often stretch hiring timelines. Even with digital tools, the process can feel fragmented. That is where AI in talent acquisition is quietly reshaping how companies identify, assess, and engage talent. It does not replace recruiters but gives them the […]
Interviewing is necessary for hiring, but it comes with hidden costs that most organizations never calculate. A manager loses an hour every time they spend time with an unqualified candidate or conduct additional unnecessary interviews. This invisible burden is often called the “Interview Tax”, and while it’s rarely discussed in formal reports, it quietly drains […]
