Publix Christmas Hours 2026
Publix stores closed at 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve in 2024 and again in 2025. Publix Christmas hours for 2026 keep the same shape, an early close on Thursday, December 24, and a full closure on Friday, December 25.
Publix posts the exact Christmas Eve time in its stores shortly before the holiday. Until this year’s signs go up, 7 p.m. is the best guide.
Pharmacies and Publix Liquors stores close on Christmas Day along with the grocery stores.
What time stores close on Christmas Eve
Florida newsrooms reported the same closing time two years in a row. Last December the USA TODAY Network listed Publix’s Christmas Eve hours in Naples as 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
A year earlier, WKMG News 6 in Orlando listed Publix stores as set to close at 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve 2024.
The time also showed up online before the holiday. Parade reported in December 2025 that, according to Publix’s website, every Publix location would close at 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve, so your store’s page in the Publix store locator is worth a look in mid-December.
Closed all day on Christmas
Every Publix closes for all of Christmas Day, which falls on a Friday this year. Stores reopen on Saturday, December 26, with their normal hours, since that day isn’t on Publix’s early closing list.
Curbside pickup stops with the stores, because Publix staff bring those Instacart orders out to your car. Groceries for the holiday weekend have to be collected on Christmas Eve or wait until Saturday.
At Publix’s Southgate Shopping Center store in Lakeland, Florida (#1270), which lists 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, a 7 p.m. close on Christmas Eve would leave 12 hours to shop instead of 15. The two days together lose 18 of the store’s usual 30 hours.
New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are the next short days, and our calendar of every Publix closing and early close through Labor Day 2027 has their hours.
Christmas dinners must be collected on Christmas Eve
With every store shut on December 25, a Publix holiday dinner for Christmas Day has to be picked up at the deli by Christmas Eve, before the early close.
Publix’s Christmas ordering page now lists the same five heat and serve dinners as its Thanksgiving page. At the Lakeland store the Complete Turkey Dinner is $69.99 for 8 and $139.99 for 15, and the Sliced Ham Dinner is $69.99 for 7. Prices vary by store.
The turkey dinner comes with a fully cooked turkey, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, cranberry orange relish, marshmallow delight and gravy.
The page no longer mentions the Deli Mojo Pork Dinner it used to suggest for Noche Buena. The Turkey Dinner with Rice and Plantains, $69.99 for 8, has the same rice and pigeon peas, sweet plantains and dulce de leche bar cake, with turkey instead of pork.
Publix needs at least 48 hours between order and pickup and suggests ordering three days ahead. Working back from a Thursday pickup, that means ordering by Monday, December 21, or Tuesday, December 22, at the latest. Deli platters need only 24 hours’ notice, so a platter for Christmas Eve can still be ordered on Wednesday, December 23.
The dinners are handed over cold and reheated at home, the same way as at Thanksgiving, and our walkthrough of the Publix turkey dinner order and pickup covers the heating times.
Christmas desserts to order ahead
Publix’s Christmas page leads its desserts with a Red Velvet Cheesecake for about 8, $23.99 regular at the Lakeland store. Round cakes such as Southern Red Velvet and Raspberry Elegance are $26.99, and the Merry Birthday stacked cake for December birthdays starts at $89.99.
Its limited-edition picks include a Snowman mini cake from $15.99, Christmas petit fours for about 10 at $24.99, and Publix Premium Bourbon Eggnog and Raspberry Elegance ice cream pints. A mini eggnog pie for about 5 is $6.99. Add any cake to the same Christmas Eve pickup, since the bakery is closed on the 25th too.
Pharmacy refills before December 25
Publix pharmacies close on Christmas Day, and Publix’s store pages don’t list special pharmacy hours for Christmas Eve. If a prescription runs out around the holiday, call the pharmacy number on your store’s page during the week before, and see our list of regular Publix pharmacy hours, Sundays included.
If a flu shot is on your list too, the CDC says protection takes about two weeks to build, and Friday, December 11, is two weeks before Christmas Day. Our page on flu shots at the Publix pharmacy covers what the shot costs.
On Christmas Day last year, FOX 13 Tampa Bay listed CVS as open and said select 24-hour Walgreens locations would be. Publix, Winn-Dixie, Kroger, Walmart, Target, Whole Foods and Harris Teeter all closed.
