No Christmas 2026 bin dates yet. Christmas and New Year's Day are both Fridays, and in 2020, the last year like it, only Friday collections moved.
Harborough District Council has not yet published its Christmas and New Year bin collection dates for 2026. Its printed calendars stop at the end of November 2026, and the council’s bin pages carry nothing newer for Christmas than a note written for 2020. We checked on 25 September.
What we can tell you is which households are likely to be affected, and what the council did the last time Christmas fell on this exact pattern of days.
The quick answer
- Christmas Day (Friday 25 December) and New Year’s Day (Friday 1 January 2027) are both Fridays, so if your bins go out on a Friday, expect those two collections to move.
- In 2020, the last time the days fell like this, only the two Friday collections moved. Monday to Thursday rounds ran as normal, including the Boxing Day substitute bank holiday on Monday 28 December.
- The 2026 dates should appear in the new bin calendars, which the council has published in December in each of the last two years.
When the dates will be published
Harborough does not put out a Christmas bins press release. The festive changes go into the next year’s printed calendars, which run from December to November.
- The December 2024 to November 2025 calendars were on the council’s website by 10 December 2024, and they printed the Christmas 2024 changes in a box on the front.
- The December 2025 to November 2026 calendars were not up on 9 December 2025, when the page still showed the old set, and were in place by 20 January 2026. The current PDFs show January to November 2026 only.
That timing is from archived copies of the council’s bin collection calendars page (Internet Archive, 10 December 2024, 9 December 2025 and 20 January 2026). Expect the 2026 changes in early December, possibly later. We will add them here as soon as they appear.
Why 2026 looks like 2020
The three bank holidays this winter are Christmas Day on Friday 25 December, Boxing Day on Saturday 26 December with the bank holiday moved to Monday 28 December, and New Year’s Day on Friday 1 January 2027. (UK bank holidays, GOV.UK)
That is exactly how the days fell in 2020. The council’s note for that Christmas is still on its bin collection information page, and it cancelled collections on the two Fridays only.
| Calendar | No collections on | Blue-lidded bin moved to | Black bin moved to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Fri 25 Dec and Fri 1 Jan | Wednesday 23 December | Thursday 31 December |
| Blue | Fri 25 Dec and Fri 1 Jan | Wednesday 30 December | Thursday 24 December |
| Rural yellow | Fri 25 Dec and Fri 1 Jan | Wednesday 23 December | Saturday 2 January |
The pattern in that table is the useful part. Friday rounds were pulled forward a day or two, or pushed to the next day, and nobody else’s day changed. The council’s note is not tidy: it gives the blue calendar’s black bin date as “Thursday 24 December 2021” and the rural blue-lidded date as “Wednesday 23 December 2021”, which are typing errors for 2020.
In 2020 the council also stopped bulky waste and clinical waste collections, and bin deliveries and removals, for the weeks beginning 21 and 28 December, with normal service back from the week beginning 4 January.
What happened in 2024, when Christmas fell midweek
The most recent changes we can read in full are from Christmas 2024, when Christmas Day was a Wednesday. The council printed them on the front of each calendar.
| Normal day | Blue calendar moved to | Yellow calendar moved to |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday 25 December 2024 | Tuesday 24 December | Monday 23 December |
| Thursday 26 December 2024 | Saturday 28 December | Friday 27 December |
| Wednesday 1 January 2025 | Thursday 2 January | Tuesday 31 December |
Sources: Harborough District Council blue and yellow calendars for December 2024 to November 2025, as archived on 22 and 28 October 2025. The files at those addresses have since been replaced with the 2026 calendars.
Two things carry over. Only the days that were bank holidays moved, and the replacement could fall before the holiday as well as after it. So if you are a Friday household, do not assume your collection will be later: in both years some rounds came forward.
We could not find the council’s changes for Christmas 2025 on its website. They were not in the calendars it published in January.
Green bins: nothing until March
There are no garden waste collections in December, January or February. The £61 subscription covers April to November and then March. (Garden waste service, Harborough District Council)
The tips shut for four days
Leicestershire County Council, which runs the tips, closed all its recycling and household waste sites on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day last year, on top of their normal closed days, and warned that the days after Boxing Day are very busy. (Leicestershire County Council, 15 December 2025)
In 2026 that would leave Market Harborough’s tip, which opens Thursday to Saturday, with no open day at all in Christmas week. The detail is on our Market Harborough tip opening times page.
Find your own day now
Enter your postcode on the council’s bin collection checker, run by its contractor FCC Environment, to see your calendar colour and next dates. Bins must be out by 7am. Our Market Harborough bin collection days page explains the calendars, the November 2024 day swap and what goes in which bin.
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