The UK WhatsApp Campaign Calendar, November 2026 to December 2027

Short answer: the UK year has five big WhatsApp moments: Black Friday (Friday 27 November 2026) through Cyber Monday (30 November), the Christmas posting deadlines (Royal Mail's reported last dates for 2026 run from Friday 18 December for 2nd Class to Wednesday 23 December for Special Delivery), the January sales, Mothering Sunday (7 March 2027) followed by Easter (Good Friday 26 March, Easter Monday 29 March), and back to school in August and September. Bank holidays differ between England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, so segment by nation when it matters. Submit templates three to four weeks ahead, send offers only to customers who opted in, and keep broadcasts between about 9am and 8pm.

How to use this calendar

Every date below comes from an official source where one exists: bank holidays from gov.uk, posting dates from Royal Mail as reported, and moveable dates calculated from Easter. For each moment you get three things: what to send, which template category Meta will treat it as (that decides the price), and when to send. On Meta's sterling rate card, a UK marketing message costs £0.0458 and a utility message £0.0159; the arithmetic is in our UK pricing guide.

Two rules apply to every campaign here. Offers go only to people who opted in or who qualify for the soft opt-in, with an opt-out in every message (see our UK marketing rules guide). And a template must be approved before you can send it, so submit seasonal templates weeks ahead, not on the morning.

The calendar at a glance

Bank holiday dates are from gov.uk. Diwali and Lunar New Year are as published in festival calendars; Ramadan and both Eids depend on the moon and are covered further down. Pancake Day is calculated from Easter (Shrove Tuesday falls 47 days before Easter Sunday), as is Mothering Sunday (three weeks before Easter).

November 2026: Bonfire Night to Black Friday

Black Friday is now the single biggest WhatsApp send of the year for UK online shops, and the inboxes it lands in are crowded. A tight sequence beats one huge blast.

• Mid-November: a "join the early-access list" message to existing customers who opted in. The replies tell you who is genuinely interested, and the replies themselves are service messages.
• Thursday 26 November, evening: early access for that list only.
• Friday 27 November, around 8am: the main launch. Most people check their phones before work.
• Monday 30 November: a Cyber Monday "last chance" to people who clicked but did not buy, not to the whole list.

Keep order confirmations and dispatch updates as clean utility templates throughout. During peak weeks they also reduce "where's my order?" chats, which since October count as billable service replies after the free 1,000 per number.

What it costs: a Leeds skincare brand sending its launch to 8,000 opted-in customers pays Meta 8,000 × £0.0458 = £366.40. A follow-up to 2,500 non-buying clickers adds 2,500 × £0.0458 = £114.50, so £480.90 for the weekend's marketing. Cutting the launch list to the 5,000 people who bought or clicked in the last year would save 3,000 × £0.0458 = £137.40.

Hi {{1}}, our Black Friday sale is live: up to 40% off everything at {{2}} until midnight on Monday. Your early-access code {{3}} gets you an extra 10% today only. Shop here: {{4}}. Reply STOP to opt out of offers.

St Andrew's Day and Scotland

Monday 30 November is a bank holiday in Scotland only. If you have shops in Glasgow or Edinburgh with changed hours, send a short utility update to Scottish customers rather than to the whole list.

December 2026: posting dates and opening hours

Royal Mail's last recommended posting dates for UK delivery before Christmas 2026, as reported from its published list, are: Friday 18 December for 2nd Class and 2nd Class Signed For; Saturday 19 December for Tracked 48; Monday 21 December for 1st Class, 1st Class Signed For and Tracked 24; and Wednesday 23 December for Special Delivery. Royal Mail says these can change, so check its site before you quote them to customers, and use your own courier's cut-offs if you do not ship with Royal Mail.

Turn those dates into a countdown: one marketing message about three days before your standard cut-off ("order by Thursday for Christmas delivery"), then a final one the day before your express cut-off. After that, stop selling delivery and switch to click-and-collect or gift cards.

Hi {{1}}, a quick heads-up from {{2}}: order by {{3}} for delivery before Christmas. After that, our e-gift cards arrive instantly. Browse here: {{4}}. Reply STOP to opt out of offers.

Christmas Day is Friday 25 December 2026, and because Boxing Day falls on a Saturday the substitute bank holiday is Monday 28 December in every UK nation. A plain utility message with your holiday opening hours and delivery pause is one of the most useful things you can send in December, and it costs £0.0159 rather than £0.0458.

Christmas for Polish customers

For many Polish families in the UK the main celebration is Wigilia on Christmas Eve, so a Polish deli or bakery should push orders earlier than 24 December. Meta supports Polish templates (code pl). For customers who chose Polish:

Dzień dobry {{1}}! Zamówienia na Wigilię przyjmujemy do {{2}}. Odbiór w sklepie 23 i 24 grudnia, zamów przez link poniżej. Jeśli nie chcesz otrzymywać ofert, odpowiedz STOP.

Keep STOP as the opt-out word: automatic opt-outs in QuickWA recognise English keywords such as STOP and UNSUBSCRIBE.

January 2027: sales, resolutions and Burns Night

Boxing Day sales start on Saturday 26 December and usually run well into January. For fashion and homeware, send the sale launch on Boxing Day morning and a "final reductions" message in mid-January. For gyms, personal trainers and clinics, New Year's Day is Friday 1 January; Scotland also has Monday 4 January as the 2 January substitute holiday, so many Scots are back at work a day later than the rest of the UK. A Manchester gym's January membership offer works best on the first working weekday, not on New Year's Day itself.

Burns Night on Monday 25 January is a booking moment for Scottish restaurants and pubs: send it about ten days ahead.

February and March 2027: Valentine's, Ramadan, Mothering Sunday

Shrove Tuesday is 9 February and Valentine's Day falls on Sunday 14 February, so restaurants get two dinner services in one week. Send Valentine's booking messages around 1 February, with a reminder about a week before.

Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr

The 2021 Census counted 3.9 million Muslims in England and Wales, 6.5% of the population. Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin around 8 February and Eid al-Fitr around 9 or 10 March, both subject to moon sighting, so confirm closer to the time. Food shops, bakeries and fashion retailers serving Muslim customers can send iftar and Eid offers in the evening, after sunset, rather than in the afternoon, to people who opted in. Avoid marketing anything that sits awkwardly with fasting during daylight.

Mothering Sunday, 7 March

Mothering Sunday is the UK's own date, not the American one in May, and confusing the two is a classic mistake for brands using international templates. Florists, gift shops, restaurants and spas should send a first message around 22 February, a reminder around 1 March, and a delivery cut-off message on Wednesday 3 or Thursday 4 March.

Hi {{1}}, Mothering Sunday is this Sunday, 7 March. Order flowers from {{2}} by 2pm on Friday for Saturday delivery, or book afternoon tea for two here: {{3}}. Reply STOP to opt out of offers.

St Patrick's Day on Wednesday 17 March is a bank holiday in Northern Ireland; for hospitality in Belfast and Derry it is a booking push, and for everyone else with NI customers it is an opening-hours update.

Easter, spring and summer 2027

Good Friday is 26 March and Easter Monday 29 March (a bank holiday in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but not in Scotland). Easter Sunday is 28 March, which is also the night the clocks go forward, so a message scheduled for "9am" lands an hour earlier in body-clock terms than the week before. Send Easter egg and spring range messages in the week before Good Friday, and a utility message with bank holiday hours on the Wednesday.

The two May bank holidays, Monday 3 May and Monday 31 May, apply in every UK nation and are strong weekends for garden centres, DIY, BBQ food and short breaks. Eid al-Adha is expected around 16 May 2027, again subject to the moon.

Father's Day is Sunday 20 June. In Northern Ireland, Monday 12 July is a bank holiday; send a utility update about opening hours and delivery to NI customers. Scotland's summer bank holiday is Monday 2 August; England, Wales and Northern Ireland have Monday 30 August.

School holidays and back to school

Term dates are set by local authorities and individual schools, so check your area rather than relying on one national date. As a rule of thumb, schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland break up in late June or early July and Scottish schools return in mid-August; schools in England and Wales break up in the second half of July and return in early September. That gives uniform, shoe and stationery retailers two back-to-school peaks: target Scottish postcodes in early August and English and Welsh ones in late August.

Autumn 2027 and round two

Diwali is Friday 29 October 2027 and Halloween falls on Sunday 31 October, which is also when the clocks go back, so check send times that weekend. Bonfire Night is Friday 5 November. Black Friday 2027 is 26 November and Cyber Monday 29 November; St Andrew's Day on Tuesday 30 November is a Scottish bank holiday. Christmas Day 2027 is a Saturday, so the substitute bank holidays are Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December across the UK. Royal Mail has not published its 2027 posting dates yet.

Sending times and lead times

QuickWA lets you set a sending window in Settings, and scheduled broadcasts wait until it reopens; it is off until you switch it on. Segment by nation whenever bank holidays differ, and by language only where a customer has chosen one. For everything QuickWA includes for UK businesses, see our UK page.

Sources

• gov.uk, UK bank holidays for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (2026 and 2027): gov.uk/bank-holidays (checked 26 Oct 2026)
• Privy Council, proclamation of 2027 bank holidays in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: privycouncil.independent.gov.uk (checked 26 Oct 2026)
• Royal Mail Christmas 2026 last posting dates, as reported by Christmas Countdown (citing Royal Mail's list of 13 October 2026): christmascountdown.co.uk (checked 26 Oct 2026); confirm at royalmail.com
• ONS, Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021: ons.gov.uk (checked 26 Oct 2026)
• Meta, WhatsApp pricing (UK rates from 1 October 2026): developers.facebook.com (checked 26 Oct 2026)
• Meta, template supported languages (Polish, pl): developers.facebook.com (checked 26 Oct 2026)
• Office Holidays, Mothering Sunday 2027: officeholidays.com (checked 26 Oct 2026)
• Diwali dates 2026 and 2027: publicholidays.com (checked 26 Oct 2026)