Federal offices will be closed the day after Christmas this year and most federal workers will get the day off.
President Obama ordered agencies closed Dec. 26, a Friday, in an executive order issued late Friday.
{mosads}Since Christmas falls on a Thursday this year, federal workers covered under the order will have a four-day weekend.
The executive order makes an exemption that allows agencies or offices to remain open “for reasons of national security, defense, or other public need,” and those covered employees will still need to work.
A federal employee on Oklahoma had started a petition on the White House’s We the People website in October asking Obama to grant the extra holiday, the Washington Post reported at the time.
The worker argued that such a declaration “would be a good gesture to improve morale of the federal workforce.” But it failed to reach the 100,000 signatures necessary for a formal response from the White House.
Half-day and full-day holidays are comment before and after Christmas in the federal government.
Employees had the day before Christmas off in 2012, when Christmas was on a Tuesday. But the days surrounding Christmas had full work hours last year, when it was a Wednesday.