Restaurants Open on Christmas Day 2026: Chains Open and Closed

Plenty of restaurants are open on Christmas Day, which in 2026 falls on Friday, December 25. Waffle House never closes, IHOP and Denny's keep most restaurants open, Red Lobster opened nearly every location last year, and steakhouses such as Fogo de Chão, Ruth's Chris and Morton's take Christmas reservations. Chinese restaurants, hotel dining rooms and many independent diners are open too. Closed by company policy: Cracker Barrel, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Texas Roadhouse, Outback, Chili's, Bob Evans and most Cheesecake Factory locations.

As of mid-October 2026, restaurant chains have not announced this year's Christmas hours – most do it in December. The lists below give each chain's standing policy and what it confirmed for Christmas 2025, mostly through company statements to USA Today, Today.com and Axios, and through the chains' own websites. Each item is labeled with its year, and this page will be updated when 2026 schedules are published. Because most of these restaurants are franchised, the last word always belongs to the location you plan to visit.

Restaurant chains open on Christmas Day

These chains were open on December 25, 2025, or have a written policy of opening on the holiday.

Varies by location – call ahead. Buffalo Wild Wings, Hooters and Shoney's are not in the table on purpose. None of the three has a Christmas Day statement on its own website or newsroom that we could find, and the news lists that mentioned them last year did not agree with each other. We give no status and no hours for them: check the location's own page or phone it.

Is IHOP open on Christmas?

Usually, yes. USA Today reported in December 2025 that IHOP restaurants would be open on Christmas Day with hours that vary by location. The company's own FAQ explains why there is no single answer: roughly 99% of IHOP restaurants are owned by franchisees. Many 24-hour IHOPs stay open around the clock, while others shorten the day. Check the restaurant's page on IHOP's site or phone it the day before.

Is Waffle House open on Christmas?

Yes. Waffle House restaurants are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and the chain is famous for it. Christmas morning is one of its busiest shifts. Expect a full parking lot between about 8 a.m. and noon; counter seats turn over fastest.

Is Denny's open on Christmas?

Most Denny's restaurants are, but the company no longer promises it for every location. Its 2025 holiday announcement told guests to "check your local Denny's for dine-in hours on Thanksgiving and Christmas." Denny's also sold a take-home turkey bundle last year, starting at $54.99 for up to four people, with Christmas pre-orders open from December 15 to December 22 and the last pickup on December 24.

Restaurants closed on Christmas Day

These chains close for the day, most as a matter of written policy.

Is Cracker Barrel open on Christmas? No. Cracker Barrel told USA Today it was closed on Christmas Day 2025 and that restaurants closed at 2 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Check your local store's page before planning a Christmas Eve lunch. Is Olive Garden open on Christmas? No – its FAQ says restaurants close on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Is Texas Roadhouse open on Christmas? No; the company confirmed all locations closed last year. The same goes for Outback and for LongHorn.

Chinese restaurants, hotels and other reliable choices

National chains are only part of the picture. Several kinds of restaurants are open on Christmas almost everywhere:

• Chinese restaurants. Many family-run Chinese restaurants treat December 25 as a normal business day, and for a lot of them it is the busiest day of the year. Axios, citing Yelp data, reported that searches for Chinese restaurants on Christmas Day were 99% higher than on any other day that month. The custom of Chinese food on Christmas is especially associated with American Jewish families; Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut, who wrote a book on the subject, has traced the first written mention to a 1935 newspaper item about a Chinese restaurant owner bringing chow mein to a Jewish children's home in Newark, New Jersey. Order early: popular places stop taking phone orders by late afternoon.
• Hotel restaurants. Hotels have guests to feed, so their restaurants open, and many sell a Christmas brunch or dinner to the public. These are often the easiest reservations to find in a city center.
• Indian, Middle Eastern, Korean, Japanese and other restaurants whose owners do not observe Christmas often keep regular hours. The Halal Guys, for example, was listed as open last year.
• Diners and truck-stop restaurants. Independent 24-hour diners rarely close. Travel centers such as Love's, Pilot Flying J and TA stayed open around the clock last Christmas, with their restaurants and food counters.
• Casino and airport restaurants. Both operate every day of the year, though individual counters may close.

Breakfast, buffets and takeout on Christmas Day

Breakfast. Waffle House, IHOP, Denny's, Huddle House and Perkins are the national options, along with hotel breakfast rooms. First Watch, Bob Evans and Cracker Barrel are closed. Go before 8 a.m. or after 1 p.m. to miss the worst of the wait.

Buffets. Golden Corral is the main national buffet and leaves Christmas hours to each restaurant; many open for a holiday buffet, some do not. Casino buffets and hotel brunch buffets are the other dependable choices, and they generally require a reservation or prepayment.

Takeout and delivery. DoorDash has said Christmas Day was its busiest holiday for delivery in 2024, measured by deliveries per open restaurant location. That is a polite way of saying that few restaurants are open and those that are get swamped. Order early in the day, expect longer delivery times and fewer drivers, and tip accordingly. Pizza is possible but hit or miss: Domino's says it does not require its stores to open on Christmas Day, so each franchise decides.

Christmas dinner to go: order before the holiday

Several chains that close on Christmas Day will still cook your dinner, as long as you collect it by Christmas Eve. These were the 2025 programs; 2026 details were only partly published when we checked.

• Cracker Barrel Heat n' Serve. Chilled holiday meals built around ham or prime rib that you reheat at home. The company said 2025 meals started at $114.99. Its site currently lists a ham feast for 8 to 10 people and family dinners for 4 to 6, with a pickup window of December 21 to 28, at least 12 hours' notice, and advice to use the food within 72 hours.
• Bob Evans Farmhouse Feast. Packed cold and ready in about two hours, in sizes for 4, 8 or 8 to 10 people, with pickup on or before December 24.
• Golden Corral Holiday Meals To Go. Serves 6 to 8 with turkey, glazed ham or pork roast, sides, rolls and a pie. Order lead times are set by each restaurant.
• Denny's turkey bundle. From $54.99 for four in 2025, pre-ordered by December 22 and picked up by December 24.
• Metro Diner. Turkey or ham feasts for 1, 4 or 8 or more; last year's Christmas order deadline was December 23.

The common thread: order at least three days ahead and pick up on December 23 or 24. Nothing is handed over on the 25th. If you would rather cook, the timing charts in how long to cook a turkey apply to a Christmas bird as well, and apple pie is a dessert you can bake a day ahead.

How to get a table on Christmas Day

1. Book now if you want a sit-down dinner. Steakhouses and hotel restaurants open their Christmas books weeks ahead – OpenTable keeps dedicated Christmas Day pages by city – and prime times between 1 and 6 p.m. go first.
2. Read the menu before you commit. Many restaurants serve only a fixed-price holiday menu on December 25, sometimes with a deposit or a card on file. Know the per-person price before you book for eight.
3. Ask about the cancellation policy. Holiday reservations often carry a no-show fee.
4. Confirm the day before. Call the restaurant, not a central reservations line, and confirm the time and party size.
5. For walk-in places, aim for the gaps. Mid-afternoon between lunch and dinner, or late evening, usually means the shortest wait at diners.
6. Have a second choice. Staff call in sick and franchise owners change their minds. A backup that is definitely open – a 24-hour diner, a Chinese restaurant you have phoned – saves the day.
7. Tip well. The people serving you are giving up their holiday. Today.com's etiquette column on Christmas dining makes the same point: be generous to staff who are working the holiday.

Restaurants open on Christmas Eve

Thursday, December 24, 2026 is far easier. Nearly every chain is open, including the ones that close on Christmas Day, but many send staff home early. Last year Cracker Barrel closed at 2 p.m., Chili's at 4 p.m., and LongHorn's policy is an 8 p.m. close. Red Lobster ran 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Fogo de Chão 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. If you are planning a Christmas Eve dinner out, book for 6 p.m. or earlier and check the closing time. More detail, including stores, is in our guide to Christmas Eve hours.

Finding restaurants open on Christmas Day near you

Search results for "restaurants open on Christmas Day near me" are only as good as the hours each owner has entered. Use them to build a shortlist, then verify:

• Filter a reservation app for December 25 and your party size. A restaurant that accepts a booking for that date is open.
• Check the restaurant's own social media. Independent restaurants announce holiday hours there before anywhere else.
• Look at delivery apps on the day. A restaurant that shows as accepting orders is cooking.
• Local newspapers and TV stations in most cities publish a list of open restaurants in mid-December, usually with phone-verified hours.
• Phone. A recorded holiday greeting with hours is better evidence than any listing.

For quick-service chains, coffee and pizza, see fast food open on Christmas. For everything else that is open or closed on the day, start with the main guide to what is open on Christmas Day.