Preparing for the Holidays: Child Custody and Visitation – The Reape-Rickett Law Firm

Making holiday plans can be more complicated during a divorce or custody matter. To help you and your children it’s best to create a court-approved custody and visitation order, which may include how you share custodial time during holidays.
When making your custody and visitation plan, you can continue your regular custody schedule year-round, and if a holiday falls on your day, you get that time. That arrangement is common for less widely celebrated holidays. However, for “big” holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, etc., you can create a separate Holiday Schedule, which replaces your regular custody schedule on or around selected holidays.
 In a Holiday Schedule, parents can agree to alternate holidays on an every-other-year basis. Such as one parent has Thanksgiving in even years and Christmas in odd years, and the other has the opposite. Alternatively, holidays can be assigned the same way every year. For example, Dad has Christmas Eve from 4 pm to 9 am Christmas Day, and the children go to Mom’s house at 9 am every year.
The “alternating year” option works best if there is a significant distance between respective family celebrations. Also, you should decide the duration of visitation, i.e. just the holiday (Thanksgiving Day) or the entire school break (Wednesday to Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend), to allow for travel plans. 
The more detailed the schedule, the fewer problems that may arise later. While sometimes frustrating, remember both you and your families love your children and want to spend time together, and your children feel the same. Discuss each holiday individually and be forthcoming about which holidays are most important to you, including the days and times of anticipated family events, to effectively coordinate a schedule.
While creating a holiday schedule won’t solve all the holiday “family drama,” it can alleviate foreseeable problems. And remember, do what works best for your children, not yourself. 
If you can’t reach an agreement or need help creating one, contact The Reape-Rickett Law Firm to meet with one of our experienced attorneys for legal advice or to act as a mediator. Call today at (888) 851-1611 or visit www.DivorceDigest.com.