Is Walgreens Open on Christmas? CVS and Pharmacy Hours 2026

Yes, some pharmacies are open on Christmas Day. Walgreens and CVS are the two national chains that open on December 25, which in 2026 is a Friday. But there is a catch that sends a lot of people home empty-handed: the store being open does not mean the pharmacy counter is. Last year Walgreens said its stores would be open on Christmas Day with pharmacy hours that "may vary," and CVS said its pharmacies would be open but that "some stores and pharmacies may have reduced hours." Your surest option is a 24-hour pharmacy, confirmed by phone. Pharmacies inside Walmart, Costco, Target, Kroger, Publix and H-E-B are closed.

Neither Walgreens nor CVS has announced its Christmas 2026 schedule as of mid-October. Walgreens published last year's holiday hours on November 19, so expect news in the second half of November. Everything below is company policy or what the chains confirmed for 2025, labeled as such, and we will update this page when 2026 hours are out.

If this is an emergency – chest pain, trouble breathing, signs of a stroke, a severe allergic reaction, a suspected overdose – call 911. Hospital emergency departments are open every hour of every day. For a possible poisoning or a medication mix-up, call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222, a free and confidential line that connects you to your local poison center.

Is Walgreens open on Christmas Day?

Yes. Walgreens' holiday schedule for 2025 read: "Christmas Eve (Dec. 24), Christmas Day (Dec. 25), New Year's Eve (Dec. 31) and New Year's Day (Jan. 1): Stores open; pharmacy hours may vary." The Associated Press reported that all 24-hour Walgreens locations stayed open on Christmas. Walgreens' own announcement gave no opening or closing times, and the times printed by news outlets did not agree with one another, so we do not list any. Plan on a shortened day and look up your store in the Walgreens locator or app, which the company says carries the most up-to-date store and pharmacy hours.

People often confuse this with Thanksgiving. Since 2023 Walgreens has closed most of its stores on Thanksgiving Day, keeping 24-hour locations open for essential pharmacy services. That closure does not apply to Christmas: the same 2025 schedule that listed most stores as closed on Thanksgiving listed stores as open on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

There is some reason to expect more pharmacy access on holidays this year. For the Fourth of July 2026 Walgreens announced that, unlike earlier years when stores opened but most pharmacies closed, it would keep more than 4,000 pharmacy locations open. The company has said nothing yet about Christmas 2026. Walgreens describes its pharmacy network as approximately 8,000 locations.

Is CVS open on Christmas Day?

Yes, with reduced hours at some locations. A CVS spokesperson told USA Today before Christmas 2025 that CVS pharmacies would be open on Christmas Day, although some stores and pharmacies might have reduced hours, and told Today.com, "We recommend that customers and patients call their local store before visiting." Axios's summary was blunter: many stores open, some closed or on reduced hours, and many pharmacy counters closed for the day. The same wording applied to Christmas Eve.

CVS has more than 9,000 locations and says over 85% of Americans live within 10 miles of one, so there is likely a CVS near you; whether its pharmacy is staffed on December 25 is the thing to confirm. CVS pharmacies inside Target stores are closed on Christmas Day because Target is closed.

Store hours are not pharmacy hours

A drugstore is two businesses under one roof. The front of the store – snacks, cards, cosmetics, over-the-counter medicine – can be run by a couple of clerks. The pharmacy cannot legally dispense prescriptions without a licensed pharmacist on duty, so when the pharmacist's shift ends, the counter closes, whatever the sign on the front door says. On holidays chains commonly staff the store and shorten or cancel the pharmacy shift.

The same split applies to "24-hour" locations. Both chains distinguish between a store that is open 24 hours and a pharmacy that is open 24 hours. Walgreens' Thanksgiving notice, for example, says 24-hour locations remain open "for essential pharmacy services," while its locator lists "24-hr store" and "24-hr pharmacy" as two different filters. Neither chain publishes a current count of its 24-hour stores or 24-hour pharmacies, and the totals have been shrinking as stores close, so do not rely on a number or on memory of which store used to be open all night; rely on the filter.

What this means in practice:

• You can buy over-the-counter medicine at any open drugstore, pharmacy counter or not.
• For a prescription, you need the pharmacy's hours for December 25 specifically, not the store's.
• Drive-thru windows belong to the pharmacy and close with it.
• If the counter is closed, a filled prescription sitting in the bin cannot be handed over by front-store staff.

How to find a 24-hour pharmacy

1. Use the chain's store locator with the right filter. On the CVS locator, open Filters and choose "Pharmacy Open 24 Hours" under Pharmacy Services; "Store Open 24 Hours" is a separate filter. On the Walgreens locator, open Filters and choose "24-hr pharmacy" under Extended Hours & Drive-Thru; "24-hr store" is a different option.
2. Open the store's detail page and look at the pharmacy hours listed for the holiday.
3. Call the pharmacy directly and ask two questions: are you open on Christmas Day, and until what time. A recorded holiday message counts as an answer.
4. Ask whether they have your medication in stock before you drive, especially for anything unusual, refrigerated or controlled.
5. Widen the search. In rural areas the nearest open pharmacy on Christmas may be 30 miles or more away; a hospital-affiliated outpatient pharmacy is sometimes closer.

Do this on December 23 or 24 if you can. Knowing which pharmacy within reach will be open, and during which hours, is far easier to work out when you are not already in need.

Pharmacies closed on Christmas Day

Rite Aid is worth a note, because for decades it was the third national option. The chain filed for bankruptcy twice and closed its last stores in early October 2025. If your prescriptions were at Rite Aid and you have not used them since, the company's website still offers a way to request your pharmacy records, and any pharmacy you choose now can contact your doctor for new prescriptions.

The pattern in the table is the important part: supermarket and big-box pharmacies close early on Christmas Eve, sometimes four hours before the store, and do not open at all on Christmas Day. If you use one of them, pick up by Wednesday, December 23.

If you run out of a prescription on Christmas

Work through these in order. Do not skip doses of an essential medicine to wait for Monday without asking a pharmacist or doctor whether that is safe.

1. Call an open pharmacy, even if it is not yours. Pharmacies in the same chain share records, so any open Walgreens or CVS can usually fill a prescription that has refills remaining at another of its stores.
2. Ask about an emergency supply. Many states let a pharmacist dispense a small emergency quantity of a maintenance medication when the prescriber cannot be reached. The rules are state law, not federal, and they vary a great deal: reviews of state rules have found that some states allow only a 72-hour supply, some allow up to 30 days, and some have no general provision. Ohio is a typical example – its pharmacy board allows a one-time 72-hour supply, or up to 30 days for certain ongoing therapies, never for the most tightly controlled drugs, and only if the pharmacy has a record of the prescription. Laws often called "Kevin's Law," passed in a number of states after an Ohio man died when he could not get an insulin refill over a holiday, specifically cover life-sustaining drugs such as insulin.
3. Expect limits on controlled substances. Emergency-supply rules generally exclude or tightly restrict them. A federal rule in effect since August 2023 does allow an electronic prescription for a controlled substance to be transferred once between pharmacies for its first fill, where state law permits, which can help if your usual pharmacy is closed and the prescription has not been filled yet.
4. Use telehealth for a new prescription. Virtual visits run on holidays. Teladoc advertises 24/7 care from a medical provider "anytime, day or night," and Amazon One Medical says members can request 24/7 on-demand virtual care in its app. CVS's MinuteClinic also sells virtual visits, at a posted cash price of $89, but CVS has not published MinuteClinic hours for December 25, 2026, in stores or online, so check the MinuteClinic scheduler for open appointments instead of assuming. The clinician can send a prescription to whichever pharmacy you have confirmed is open.
5. Go to urgent care. Some chains open on Christmas. Patient First, which operates in the Mid-Atlantic, advertises walk-in hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., 365 days a year. AFC Urgent Care locations are franchised and set their own hours; one Colorado center, for example, lists Christmas Day hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Other chains post holiday hours on each clinic's page. Call before you go.
6. Go to the emergency department if you cannot get a medicine you must not miss – for example insulin, seizure medication, blood thinners, transplant drugs or a rescue inhaler – or if you already feel unwell. Emergency departments can treat you and often provide enough medication to bridge the gap.

Who to call: numbers that work on Christmas Day

Holiday gatherings put visiting relatives' medications, in open bags and on nightstands, within reach of children. Keep purses and pill organizers out of reach, and save the Poison Help number in your phone before guests arrive. If stomach illness strikes the household over the holiday, our guide to norovirus symptoms explains what to watch for and when to seek care.

Over-the-counter medicine on Christmas Day

You do not need a pharmacist for cold medicine, pain relievers, antacids, allergy tablets, anti-diarrheal medicine, children's fever reducers, bandages, thermometers or home test kits. Any open Walgreens or CVS sells them from the regular shelves, and so do the supermarkets that open. Convenience stores – 7-Eleven, Wawa, Sheetz, QuikTrip, Circle K – were open on Christmas Day 2025 and carry small packs of the basics at higher prices. One exception: under the federal Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act, the FDA explains, cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine may be sold only from behind the counter or from a locked cabinet, with photo identification and a purchase log. In most drugstores that means the pharmacy counter, so expect those products to be unavailable when the counter is closed.

Delivery is possible in some areas. Walgreens says its one-hour delivery of store items generally runs 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at most stores but may be unavailable on holidays; prescription delivery is a separate service. Do not count on a prescription arriving by mail or courier on December 25 – USPS, UPS and FedEx do not make regular deliveries that day.

Before the holiday: a five-minute medication check

1. Count doses now. Everyone in the household should have enough to last through Monday, December 28, the next normal business day, plus a few days' margin.
2. Request refills by about December 18. That leaves time if the pharmacy has to contact your doctor or order the drug. Doctors' offices are thinly staffed all week.
3. Ask about refilling early. Insurers limit how soon a refill is covered; one large state health plan, for example, allows a refill once at least 75% of the previous supply has been used. If you are traveling, the pharmacy can request a vacation override from your insurer.
4. Traveling? Take medicines in your carry-on, in original containers, with a photo of each label on your phone.
5. Find your holiday pharmacy in advance. Look up the nearest 24-hour pharmacy at home and at your destination and save its number.
6. Stock the cabinet. A fever reducer, an antacid, an antihistamine, bandages and a working thermometer cover most minor holiday ailments.
7. Refrigerated medicines such as insulin and some injectable drugs need a plan for travel and for power cuts; ask the pharmacist when you pick up. If you use an injectable weight-loss or diabetes drug, our comparison of Ozempic vs Mounjaro covers the basics of both.

Christmas Eve pharmacy hours

Thursday, December 24, 2026 is the real deadline for most people. Walgreens and CVS are open; both said last year that pharmacy hours on Christmas Eve could vary or be reduced. Supermarket and warehouse pharmacies close early – as early as 3 p.m. last year at Food Lion, Harris Teeter and Giant Eagle, 4 p.m. at most Kroger-family stores, 5 p.m. at H-E-B and 7 p.m. at Publix. Independent pharmacies often keep a short day; call yours. If you are waiting on a prescription that needs a doctor's approval, call the pharmacy first thing Thursday morning; after midday the chance of reaching the prescriber's office drops sharply.

For what else is open on the two days, see Christmas Eve hours, stores open on Christmas and the main guide to what is open on Christmas Day.

This article is general information, not medical advice. For questions about your own medicines, speak with a pharmacist or your doctor.