Family Day 2025 in Canada

Family Day is celebrated on the 3rd Monday of February.

In 2025 Family Day is Monday, February 17.

Family Day is not a national statutory holiday, it is only observed in New Brunswick, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan and in British Columbia.

Other provinces have holidays in February on the same day but these holidays aren't called family day. In PEI Islander Day is celebrated on the 3rd Monday in February and in Manitoba the 3rd Monday in February is the Louis Riel Day holiday. In Nova Scotia this day is called Heritage Day.

Family Day was originally created to give people time to spend with their families but it also provides a day off between New Years Day and Good Friday as they are approximately three months apart.

Since this is not a federally mandated holiday all federal workers work on Family Day including post office employees and public servants.

This difference in eligibility for this holiday makes this holiday someone divisive. Private sector workers versus public servants. There are a lof of comments discussing who is more worthy of time off, benefits, sick leave and overall impact on society and the economy.

As mentioned above, unfortunately, not everyone gets Family Day off, which makes it a debatable holiday in many provinces. Why can't the whole country simple agree on 9 or 10 common statutory holidays remains a mystery and a good indicator of just how overcomplicated our laws are.

Common Family Day activities include skating, playing hockey, snowboarding/skiing and going to various winter festivals. But the best thing about Family Day must be beaver tails and stuffing ourselves silly with pancakes with maple syrup!

Featured comments

I've worked in both Public Sector and Public servant positions and to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes means before judging someone, you must understand his/her experiences, challenges, thought processes, etc. Don't assume you know what each others positions are before you've been in them and don't compare or comment on the differences if you've never done either. Regardless holiday or no holiday the years and days keep flying by. J.Robinson
To paint all of the Public Servants with the same brush is unjust commentary! Having worked 35 + years, I never abused my sick leave benefits. I did not get paid off for the unused sick leave. I went to work and did my job unless I was too sick to do so, and after surgery, but not one day when I was well. Many years I did not use one singular day! I worked many more hours in a week than I got paid; if I was not busy, I looked for more to do to ensure the public did not pay for idle hands; and yes, there is plenty of work that the public do not see that Public Servants perform for the betterment of Canadians and our partners! There were many dedicated Public Servants, and no doubt some that deserved the commentary being presented, but we are not all a reflection of your cruel statements of our worth to Canada! John K.
Family day upsets me because I have no family left. Meaning my parents were immigrants to this country who came by themselves so I grew up without grandparents without cousins without knowing any relatives. The rest of my family has passed and as a single person I find it depressing. I would like to ask you change the name at least to Friends and Family day or something to do with togetherness but not necessarily family.Flora
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Recent comments
Posted by someone:

@Flora we certainly can choose our family. hence called "Chosen Family" and its compromised not necessarily from blood relatives. also immigrant into this country with no other family, but I dont let that stop me from caring for others as if they were direct family. you are correct, we cannot choose who/where we are born or siblings, but the rest we can. @Guy - I feel you there, same here, Federally regulated but no holiday.

Posted by Diane:

It's seems a reliable outcome that whatever information I want to verify there are always people complaining about it. I just wanted to verify that it is family day since a neighbor has mentioned it to me. I will be glad to choose to enjoy my day whether I get to interact further with people or not.

Posted by Dean:

RE: It's interesting how public servants don't complain about this in the comments area the same way private sector workers complain about having to work on Easter Monday when public servants have the day of Could that be because of the plethora of days off, weekend flu days off etc public sector employees take off? How can public sector workers work any less and still justify their job? It would appear that whoever wrote this page is a suffragette public sector employee who wouldn't last a minute in the private sector.

Posted by Jo-Ann Weatherby:

Would love to see Family Day across Canada for everyone. We are all family

Posted by Flora:

Family day upsets me because I have no family left. Meaning my parents were immigrants to this country who came by themselves so I grew up without grandparents without cousins without knowing any relatives. The rest of my family has passed and as a single person I find it depressing. I would like to ask you change the name at least to Friends and Family day or something to do with togetherness but not necessarily family. We cannot choose our family or who we are born into or how many siblings etc. etc.. in this day and age of blended families I find this very old-fashioned. Please change the name to something more appropriate that fits all people and all ages.

Posted by Guy Richey:

The Goverment needs to make family day a federal Canada Holliday as my new job says i do not get it off with pay as they are a federal regulated company

Posted by J.Robinson:

I've worked in both Public Sector and Public servant positions and to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes means before judging someone, you must understand his/her experiences, challenges, thought processes, etc. Don't assume you know what each others positions are before you've been in them and don't compare or comment on the differences if you've never done either. Regardless holiday or no holiday the years and days keep flying by.

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