Restaurant seasonal menu calendarEvery holiday menu starts six weeks before the holiday.
The calendar below runs from today to the end of January: when each occasion falls, when to start planning, and a playbook for the menu, the price, and what to print.
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This is our restaurant seasonal menu calendar: the holidays and season changes that change what a restaurant serves, in the order they arrive. Each date on it has a playbook written the same way. It gives the date with the year and the moment the menu must be final; a timeline from six weeks out to the morning after, split between the kitchen, the bar, the front of house, and the menu; what to serve and what to run out of first; a worked pricing example, labeled as an example; and a print and QR plan that keeps your everyday menu and its code where they are.
Two kinds of occasion are on the list. Some are dinners guests book at a set price, like Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, and they get a menu of their own. Others are specials nights, like Halloween or a week of Hanukkah latkes, and they run as a section on the menu you already have. The playbooks say which is which.
None of them repeat the general work of changing a menu. That lives in the seasonal menu changeover checklist, and every playbook points to it once.
Now through October
The fall changeover is under way, and Halloween is a Saturday.
| Occasion | Date | Plan it | Why it gets a playbook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall menu for restaurants | Tuesday, September 22, 2026 (the fall equinox) | August to October | The first full changeover of the cooking year: squash in, stone fruit out, the pumpkin drink on the counter card. |
| Halloween menu ideas for restaurants | Saturday, October 31, 2026 | September to October | A Saturday this year. A short specials list, costume-night cocktails, and a bar that runs out of one thing early. |
November
The first menu guests book from, and the one with the longest lead time.
| Occasion | Date | Plan it | Why it gets a playbook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thanksgiving menu for restaurants | Thursday, November 26, 2026 | October to November | One seating or two, a per-guest price, a to-go list, and a turkey count that decides everything. |
December
Parties, eight nights, the solstice, Christmas, and midnight, in four weeks.
| Occasion | Date | Plan it | Why it gets a playbook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holiday party menus for restaurants | December 2026, Tuesday the 1st through the 23rd | October to December | Group menus at a per-person price, chosen weeks ahead and changed the week of. |
| Hanukkah menu for restaurants | Friday, December 4, 2026, at sundown, through Saturday, December 12 | November to December | Eight nights, not one. Latkes by the dozen, brisket by the pound, and a specials list that runs all week. |
| Winter menu for restaurants | Monday, December 21, 2026 (the winter solstice) | November to January | Braises, roots, citrus, and a menu that has to survive the slow weeks of January. |
| Christmas menu for restaurants | Friday, December 25, 2026 (Christmas Eve is Thursday the 24th) | October to December | Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, or both, and whether the seven fishes are on it. |
| New Year’s Eve menu for restaurants | Thursday, December 31, 2026 | November to December | An early seating and a late one, two prices, and a toast at midnight that has to be on the menu. |
January
The bar’s quiet month, and the kitchen’s real winter changeover.
| Occasion | Date | Plan it | Why it gets a playbook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dry January menu for bars | Friday, January 1, 2027, through Sunday, January 31 | December to January | Zero-proof drinks priced like drinks, on the same list, for a whole month. |
Seasonal menu questions
- How far ahead should a restaurant plan a holiday menu?
- Work back from the day guests start booking, not from the holiday. For Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve, that means a priced menu four to six weeks ahead. For specials nights like Halloween, a week is enough. Each playbook has its own timeline.
- Does every holiday need its own printed menu?
- No. The dinners guests book at a set price (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, holiday parties) get their own menu. Specials nights (Halloween, Hanukkah week, a seasonal drink launch) run as a specials section on the everyday menu and a printed card.
- Does the QR code change for a holiday menu?
- The everyday menu’s code never changes. A holiday dinner that is its own menu gets its own code, which you put on the tables for that night. Specials added as a section show up behind the code guests already scan.
- Can Gaslamp switch holiday menus on and off automatically?
- No. Gaslamp does not schedule changes. Build the holiday menu or section ahead of time, hidden, and show it that morning from your phone. Hide it the morning after.
- How is the seasonal calendar kept current?
- Each playbook states the next date with its year, sourced on the page, and is updated every year when its planning window opens.
Nine dates before February. Every one of them changes the menu.
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