Is the LCBO open on New Year's Day? No. Every LCBO in Ontario is closed on Friday, January 1, 2027, and the Beer Store closes with it. It's one of the year's total blackouts — no select stores, no reduced hours, nothing.
The day before is the opposite story, and it's the one people get backwards. New Year's Eve is not an early-close day for the LCBO. Stores are open on Thursday, December 31, and some stay open later than usual. It's the Beer Store that shuts early, at 6 PM. And whichever store you use, one rule decides the night more than either of them: every retail sale and every alcohol delivery in Ontario stops at 11 PM — an hour before the countdown.
Here's the whole stretch, day by day, and how to get through midnight without a dry glass.
The short answer
New Year's Day (Fri, Jan 1, 2027): the LCBO is closed. It's one of seven days a year the LCBO must close by law, with no exceptions.
The Beer Store is closed on New Year's Day too. Both chains go dark together, the same way they do on Christmas Day and Thanksgiving Monday.
New Year's Eve (Thu, Dec 31, 2026): the LCBO is open. Normal opening, and some locations extend their evening hours for the busiest night of the year.
The Beer Store closes at 6 PM on New Year's Eve. That's the early close on the 31st — not the LCBO.
11 PM is the legal wall. No store in Ontario can sell you alcohol after 11 PM, and no licensed service can deliver it. Bars, on the other hand, can pour until 3 AM on New Year's Eve.
January 2 is back to normal. Saturday hours at both chains, then Sunday hours — closing around 6 PM — on January 3.
New Year's Eve runs the other way
If you read our Christmas Eve guide, you'll remember the pattern: December 24 is an early close, and both chains lock up at 6 PM. It's natural to assume December 31 works the same way. It doesn't.
On New Year's Eve, the LCBO keeps trading into the evening — its normal closing time at most stores, and later at some. The LCBO announces the specific extended-hours locations each December, so check its store locator for your branch in the last week of the year.
The Beer Store is the one that stops early. Every location closes at 6 PM on the 31st, the same early close it runs on Christmas Eve.
That split matters less than it sounds, because the LCBO sells beer — and so do licensed corner stores and grocers until 11 PM. A 6 PM Beer Store close doesn't strand anyone looking for a 24-pack. It does, however, catch the people who only think of the Beer Store for beer, show up at 7, and find the lights off on the one night everyone else is out buying.
The four-day stretch: December 31 to January 3
January 1, 2027 lands on a Friday, which turns New Year's into a long weekend with one closed door in the middle of it.
| Date | Day | LCBO | The Beer Store | Licensed corner store |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu, Dec 31 | New Year's Eve | Open — some stores extend hours | Open — closes 6 PM | Open, sells until 11 PM |
| Fri, Jan 1 | New Year's Day | CLOSED | CLOSED | Most small shops open, sell until 11 PM |
| Sat, Jan 2 | — | Regular Saturday hours | Regular hours | Open, sells until 11 PM |
| Sun, Jan 3 | — | Sunday hours — closes ~6 PM | Sunday hours | Open, sells until 11 PM |
Two things to take from that table.
The 31st is the day to buy. It's the last day before the closure, the LCBO is open late, and the shelves are fully stocked for the night. The only thing you can't do on the 31st is leave it until after 11.
The weekend isn't a write-off. Saturday, January 2 is a normal shopping day. If you're hosting a New Year's Day brunch or a hangover-cure dinner on the 1st, though, the 2nd is too late — whatever you need for Friday has to be bought on Thursday.
The 11 PM wall lands an hour before midnight
This is the part of New Year's Eve no one plans for, because it's the one night of the year when the legal cutoff and the actual event are an hour apart.
Ontario's rules, straight from the AGCO:
- Retail stores — the LCBO, the Beer Store, licensed grocers and corner stores — may sell alcohol 7 AM to 11 PM.
- Licensed delivery runs 9 AM to 11 PM.
- Bars and restaurants may serve until 2 AM on a normal night — and until 3 AM on January 1, the one extension on the calendar.
Read those together and the shape of the night is clear: the province gives bars an extra hour on New Year's Eve and gives stores and delivery nothing. At 11:01 PM on December 31, every retail door in Ontario is legally shut to alcohol sales — the corner store with its lights on included — and every licensed delivery has stopped taking orders. The only alcohol you can buy between 11 PM and midnight is a drink poured at a bar.
So the real New Year's Eve deadline at home isn't midnight. It's 11 PM, and realistically earlier: an order placed at 10:55 PM has to be accepted and handed over inside the window, too. If a service tells you it can bring a bottle of champagne at 11:45 PM on the 31st, it isn't operating legally — we laid out why in How Late Can You Get Alcohol Delivered in Ontario?
New Year's Day: a total blackout, on a Friday
Friday, January 1, 2027 is the day retail actually stops.
The LCBO is closed. New Year's Day is one of the seven statutory closure days under Ontario's Retail Business Holidays Act. No select locations, no reduced hours.
The Beer Store is closed. Every location, province-wide. This is worth saying plainly because the Beer Store doesn't close on every LCBO closure day — it opens a limited slate on Labour Day, for example. New Year's Day isn't one of those.
Licensed corner stores depend on the store. Whether a shop can open on a statutory holiday isn't decided by its liquor licence — it's decided by the Retail Business Holidays Act and local by-laws. Small shops under 2,400 square feet with three or fewer staff serving customers are exempt and usually open. Full-size supermarkets generally aren't, which takes the grocery wine aisle off the table. When a store is lawfully open, the normal 7 AM–11 PM alcohol window applies.
And the limits of that window still hold on a holiday:
- No spirits, at any corner store, at any hour. Spirits are LCBO-only in Ontario — so on January 1 the province's entire retail supply of whisky, vodka, gin, rum, and tequila is behind a locked door.
- A 7.1% ABV ceiling on beer, cider, and ready-to-drink cocktails.
- Wine up to 18% ABV — which covers most sparkling wine, if the shop stocks it.
The full rules are in Can You Buy Alcohol at Convenience Stores in Ontario?.
Delivery runs 9 AM to 11 PM on New Year's Day. The licensed window doesn't change for statutory holidays. That makes delivery the only way to get spirits anywhere in Ontario on January 1 — a mimosa can come from a corner store; a Caesar can't.
New Year's Eve stock-up math
New Year's Eve has one drink that behaves differently from every other party: the midnight toast. Everyone wants a glass at the same moment, and it's the one pour you can't improvise at 11:50.
Sparkling wine for the toast:
- A 750 ml bottle pours about 6 flutes, or 8 toast-sized half-pours.
- For a toast-only crowd, budget one bottle per 6–8 guests.
- If sparkling is the drink of the night, not just the toast, budget one bottle per 2–3 guests.
- Buy one more than the math says. A bottle always gets opened early, and at 11:55 there's no fixing it.
Everything else: the usual one-drink-per-guest-per-hour rule applies, and New Year's parties run long — plan for five or six hours, not three. Our party alcohol calculator does the full bottle count by headcount.
Don't forget the non-alcohol side. Mixers, ice, and orange juice for the morning after run out just as reliably as the wine does — and unlike alcohol, they can be ordered from us at any hour.
When to buy: Wednesday, December 30 or early on the 31st. The LCBO on the evening of December 31 is the busiest store in the province, and the sparkling shelf is the first thing to go. If a statement bottle is part of the plan — something like Luc Belaire Rosé — don't count on it being there at 8 PM.
When you run short anyway
It happens. Guests bring guests, the toast bottle gets opened at ten, the Beer Store run someone promised never happened. Here's what's left, in order:
- Before 11 PM on the 31st: the LCBO (if your branch is still open), a licensed corner store, or delivery. Corner stores cover beer, wine, and coolers. For spirits after the LCBO closes, delivery is the only option.
- After 11 PM on the 31st: nothing retail. Ontario law closes every store and every delivery service to alcohol at eleven. Plan the last order for 10:30 at the latest.
- New Year's Day: a small corner store or delivery, 9 AM to 11 PM. Corner stores for beer and wine, delivery for everything including spirits.
- January 2 onward: the LCBO reopens on Saturday hours.
FAQ — New Year's Eve and New Year's Day
Is the LCBO open on New Year's Day 2027? No. Every LCBO in Ontario is closed on Friday, January 1, 2027. New Year's Day is one of seven statutory closure days under the Retail Business Holidays Act, and there are no select-store exceptions.
Is the Beer Store open on New Year's Day? No — the entire chain closes. Unlike Labour Day, when a limited slate of Beer Store locations opens, New Year's Day shuts every Beer Store in the province.
Is the LCBO open on New Year's Eve? Yes. December 31 is not a closure or early-close day for the LCBO. Stores open normally, and some locations extend their evening hours — check the LCBO store locator for your branch.
What time does the LCBO close on New Year's Eve 2026? At its normal closing time, and later at some locations on Thursday, December 31. No store can sell alcohol past 11 PM, which is the legal retail cutoff in Ontario on every night of the year, New Year's Eve included.
What time does the Beer Store close on New Year's Eve? 6 PM. All Beer Store locations close early on December 31. After that, the LCBO and licensed corner stores still sell beer.
Can I buy alcohol after 11 PM on New Year's Eve in Ontario? Not from a store or a delivery service. Ontario's retail window ends at 11 PM and licensed delivery ends at 11 PM, including on December 31. Bars and restaurants are the exception — they can serve until 3 AM on New Year's Eve.
Can I get alcohol delivered on New Year's Day in Ontario? Yes — 9 AM to 11 PM. Licensed delivery hours don't change for statutory holidays, so January 1 works like any other day. Whoever answers the door needs to be 19 or older with government photo ID.
Where can I buy alcohol on New Year's Day? A licensed small corner store or licensed delivery. Small shops are exempt from the holiday closure rules and can sell beer, cider, wine, and coolers until 11 PM, but no spirits. Licensed delivery runs 9 AM to 11 PM and is the only option that carries spirits.
Is the LCBO open on January 2, 2027? Yes. Saturday, January 2 is a regular shopping day, with normal Saturday hours at the LCBO and the Beer Store. Every holiday closure for the rest of 2027 is in our LCBO holiday hours calendar.
The one thing to take away
On New Year's Eve, midnight isn't the deadline — 11 PM is. The LCBO is open, the corner store is open, the bars are open until three, and it all feels like the city is running late. It isn't. Every store and every delivery in Ontario stops selling alcohol an hour before the ball drops, and the next morning both chains stay shut all day.
So buy on the 30th or early on the 31st, buy the toast bottle first, and buy one more than you think.
And if the count comes up short: we deliver across Niagara and Hamilton right up to the legal line — order any time, alcohol delivery 9 AM to 11 PM, on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day alike. Call 416-627-7846, and call before 10:30.
