Is the LCBO open on Thanksgiving? Short answer: no — every store in Ontario is closed on Monday, October 12, 2026.
That much most people work out. What they don't work out is the rest of it. Thanksgiving is the only closure day on the Ontario calendar where every liquor retailer in the province shuts on the same day — the LCBO, The Beer Store, and most full-size grocery. Labour Day had a Beer Store backstop. Canada Day has one too. Thanksgiving has nothing.
Here's what actually closes, the one door that stays open, and the deadline that ends the weekend a full day before the Monday does.
The short answer, on one line
Monday, October 12, 2026 — every LCBO in Ontario is closed. Not reduced hours, not select stores. Closed, province-wide, all day.
The Beer Store is closed too — all of it. This is the difference between this Monday and the last one. On Labour Day the Beer Store opened a limited slate of locations, 11 AM to 6 PM. On Thanksgiving it closes the entire chain and reopens Tuesday.
Licensed convenience stores stay open, selling beer, wine, cider, and coolers until 11 PM. No spirits, at any store, at any hour.
The next Thanksgiving is Monday, October 11, 2027, and the LCBO will be closed then too.
Why Thanksgiving closes the LCBO
Same reason as Labour Day, and it isn't the LCBO's decision to make.
Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in Ontario — one of the nine public holidays under the Employment Standards Act, and one of the days named in the Retail Business Holidays Act, which legally requires most retail to close. The LCBO doesn't get a choice, which is why "check your local store" is bad advice on this particular Monday. There is no local variation to check.
And it survived the 2026 amendment. Ontario did loosen the Act in 2026 — Family Day and Victoria Day came off the mandatory-closure list, and the LCBO responded by opening 304 stores on Victoria Day that May. Reasonable to assume the rest followed.
They didn't. The amendment covered Family Day and Victoria Day only. Thanksgiving sits with Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Canada Day, Labour Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day on the seven days that still close retail by law. Every date for both years is in our LCBO holiday hours calendar.
The total blackout: both chains, same day
This is the part worth knowing, and it's the part almost every "what's open on Thanksgiving" roundup gets wrong by copying last month's Labour Day list.
The Beer Store does not treat the seven closure days the same way. On some it opens a limited slate of stores. On others it shuts completely. Thanksgiving is firmly in the second group — The Beer Store's own holiday notice confirms all Ontario locations close for Thanksgiving Monday and reopen the following day.
| Closure holiday | LCBO | The Beer Store |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | Closed | All closed |
| Good Friday | Closed | All closed |
| Easter Sunday | Closed | All closed |
| Canada Day | Closed | Select stores open |
| Labour Day | Closed | Select stores open, ~11 AM–6 PM |
| Thanksgiving Monday | Closed | All closed |
| Christmas Day | Closed | All closed |
Most large grocery closes as well. The Retail Business Holidays Act exempts small shops — under 2,400 square feet with three or fewer staff serving customers — which is exactly the size of a corner store and nowhere near the size of a supermarket. So the Loblaws, Metro, and Sobeys wine aisles that have been a reliable backstop since 2024 are dark on Thanksgiving too.
Set beside Labour Day, where you had beer in select stores for seven hours in the middle of the day, Thanksgiving Monday leaves you one category of retail: the licensed corner store.
The real deadline: Sunday, October 11 at 6 PM
Now the part that ends more Thanksgiving weekends than the Monday closure does — and on this weekend it's sharper than on any other, because of when the meal happens.
Most Ontario families eat Thanksgiving dinner on the Sunday. The Monday is the recovery day, the drive home, the leftovers. Sunday is the event.
And Sunday, October 11 runs ordinary Sunday hours: the LCBO closes at 6 PM. The Beer Store closes around the same time.
Read those two facts together and the trap is obvious. The last liquor store in Ontario locks its doors at six — roughly the hour the turkey comes out of the oven. Every bottle opened after that is a bottle you already own. When the second red runs out at half past eight with eleven people still at the table, there is no store in the province open to sell you another one. Not that night, and not the next day either.
| Day | LCBO | The Beer Store | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat, Oct 10 | Normal hours | Normal hours | Your real shopping day |
| Sun, Oct 11 | Closes 6 PM | Closes ~6 PM | Dinner starts after the doors lock |
| Mon, Oct 12 | CLOSED | CLOSED | Total blackout — corner stores only |
What's actually still open: the corner store, and its three limits
Since 2024, licensed convenience stores across Ontario have sold beer, wine, cider, coolers, and ready-to-drink cocktails. Because most are under the 2,400-square-foot threshold, they're exempt from the closure Act and stay open on Thanksgiving. On a day when both chains are dark, that's a genuine backstop — and it's the only one.
Three limits decide whether it rescues the weekend:
- No spirits. At any hour, at any store. Vodka, whisky, rum, gin, and tequila are LCBO-only in Ontario, and the 2024 expansion deliberately kept that carve-out. If the plan involves cocktails, a corner store cannot help you — and the LCBO has been closed since Saturday night.
- Sales stop at 11 PM. Later than everything else on the weekend, but a hard stop. The AGCO sets retail liquor hours at 7 AM to 11 PM, every day of the year.
- There's a 7.1% ABV ceiling. That rules out most fortified wine — port and sherry, the two bottles most likely to be wanted after a Thanksgiving dinner, are both out of reach. Full breakdown in buying alcohol at Ontario convenience stores.
The honest summary for October 10–12: beer and wine until 11 PM all three nights, spirits only until 6 PM Sunday.
Thanksgiving stock-up math: buy Saturday, and buy wine
The fix is unglamorous and it works: treat Saturday, October 10 as your only real shopping day.
One caution on the standard formula. The usual host math — total drinks = guests × (1 + hours) — is built for a party, where people stand, circulate, and drink at a steady clip. A seated Thanksgiving dinner runs lighter than that, typically two to four drinks per adult across the meal, heavily weighted toward wine. Using party math for a dinner table will have you buying roughly double what you need.
A workable buy for a dinner of 10–12, covering the Sunday meal plus a Monday that has no stores in it:
| What | Roughly how much | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Wine | 6–8 bottles | The centre of the meal. Reckon on half a bottle per drinking adult, then add two — the second bottle of red is the one that runs out |
| Beer | 1–2 cases | Afternoon, kitchen, and football before the meal; the one thing a corner store can top up |
| One spirit + mixers | 1–2 bottles | Buy Saturday or not at all — no second chance after 6 PM Sunday |
| Something for after dinner | 1 bottle | Port, a whisky, a cognac. All spirits-shelf or over 7.1% — so all LCBO-only |
| Ice, soda, lemons | More than you think | The most-forgotten items of any long weekend |
Two rules that save this specific weekend:
- Buy the spirits and the after-dinner bottle Saturday. Sunday closes at 6, Monday has nothing open at all, and no corner store in the province will sell you a bottle of whisky or a port at any point in between. These are the items with no backup plan.
- Buy one more red than the math says. It's the single most common Thanksgiving shortfall, and it lands at 8 PM Sunday — two hours after the last store in Ontario closed.
Counts by group size are in How Much Alcohol to Buy for a Party.
When you run short anyway: Sunday night and Monday
You did the math, you bought Saturday, and it's still half past eight on Sunday with eleven people at the table and one inch of Cabernet left in the bottle.
By then every option on this page has closed. The LCBO shut at 6. The Beer Store shut at 6. Monday, neither one opens at all. The corner store has beer and wine until 11 — no spirits, nothing over 7.1%, and a selection that was never built for a dinner table.
That's the window licensed delivery exists for — a real menu brought to the door, ID checked on the step, usually in under 60 minutes.
Ontario licenses liquor delivery between 9 AM and 11 PM, every day of the year — Thanksgiving included. Worth being precise, because the internet is noisy on this: ordering runs around the clock, but the bottle legally arrives inside that window. Anyone advertising 24/7 alcohol delivery in Ontario is describing something the province doesn't license. Full version in how late you can actually get alcohol delivered.
What makes it different from the corner store on this particular weekend isn't convenience — it's range. It's the only option on Thanksgiving Monday carrying spirits at all, and the only one where the wine was chosen for a dinner table rather than a cooler.
We run the whole long weekend, Monday included:
- Hamilton and the mountain — downtown, James Street North, Westdale, plus Ancaster and Dundas. See Hamilton coverage.
- Niagara Falls — Fallsview, Clifton Hill, and the north end. See Niagara Falls coverage.
- St. Catharines, Burlington, Stoney Creek, and Welland — full primary-zone service.
- The Queensway — Stonegate, Mimico, and the south-Etobicoke waterfront.
Because it's a real warehouse rather than a cooler, you get what no open door in Ontario offers on Thanksgiving Monday: chilled wine, cold beer by the case, and the full spirits shelf. A Peller Family Pinot Grigio for the white drinkers, a Gato Negro Cabernet when the second red runs out, or a Luc Belaire Rosé if the table is celebrating something. The wine, beer, whiskey, vodka, and tequila menus are what's in the building tonight.
FAQ — Thanksgiving and the October long weekend
Is the LCBO open on Thanksgiving 2026? No. Every LCBO in Ontario is closed on Monday, October 12, 2026. Thanksgiving is one of seven days that legally require retail closure under the Retail Business Holidays Act, and it was not affected by the province's 2026 amendment.
Is the Beer Store open on Thanksgiving? No — the entire chain closes. This is where Thanksgiving differs from Labour Day and Canada Day, when the Beer Store opens a limited slate of locations. On Thanksgiving Monday every Ontario store is shut and reopens Tuesday.
Are convenience stores open on Thanksgiving in Ontario? Yes, most are. Shops under 2,400 square feet with three or fewer staff are exempt from the Retail Business Holidays Act, so licensed corner stores stay open and can sell beer, wine, cider, and coolers until 11 PM. No spirits, and nothing above 7.1% ABV.
Are grocery stores open on Thanksgiving in Ontario? Most large ones are closed. Full-size supermarkets are well over the 2,400-square-foot exemption, so the licensed wine and beer aisles at Loblaws, Metro, and Sobeys are unavailable on the Monday.
What time does the LCBO close on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend? 6 PM at most stores on Sunday, October 11 — regular Sunday hours. Since most families eat Thanksgiving dinner that evening, this is the deadline that catches people: the last store in Ontario closes about the time dinner is served.
Can I buy wine or spirits anywhere on Thanksgiving Monday? Wine, yes — at a licensed convenience store, until 11 PM, under 7.1% ABV. Spirits, no. Spirits are LCBO-only in Ontario, the LCBO is closed, and neither the Beer Store nor a corner store carries them at any hour. Licensed delivery is the only spirits option operating on the day, 9 AM–11 PM.
When is the next Thanksgiving? Monday, October 11, 2027 — and the LCBO will be closed then too. Every closure date for both years is in our holiday hours calendar.
The one thing to take away
Every other closure holiday in Ontario leaves you a door. Canada Day and Labour Day leave the Beer Store. The rest of the year leaves the grocery aisle. Thanksgiving leaves a corner store with no spirits and a 7.1% ceiling — and that's the whole list.
Which means the weekend is decided on Saturday, not Monday. Buy the wine on Saturday, October 10, and buy one more red than you think you need. Then, when the table runs longer than the bottles do, we're open — call 416-627-7846, 9 AM to 11 PM, Thanksgiving included.
