LCBO Holiday Hours in Ontario: Every 2026 and 2027 Closure Date (and What's Open Instead)

The LCBO is closed on seven holidays a year. Not nine, which is the number most guides still print, and not "all the stat holidays," which is what almost everybody assumes. Seven — and one of them is a Sunday in spring that catches people every single year.

The list changed in 2026, so a lot of the holiday advice floating around Ontario is now quietly out of date. Below is the corrected version: every LCBO closure date for the rest of 2026 and all of 2027, what the Beer Store does on the same days, and — for the dates the answer is "closed" — exactly what's still open instead.

The short answer

The LCBO shuts its doors completely on these seven days:

New Year's Day · Good Friday · Easter Sunday · Canada Day · Labour Day · Thanksgiving Monday · Christmas Day

Everything else — Family Day, Victoria Day, the August Civic Holiday, Remembrance Day, Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve — the LCBO is open in some form, though four of those come with a catch worth knowing about.

Two things to keep in mind before you plan around any of this. Hours vary by store, and the LCBO republishes holiday hours each year, so confirm your location on the LCBO store locator. And on a holiday eve, the closing time matters more than the closure itself — that's the part that actually ruins plans.

What changed in 2026 (and why old guides are wrong)

For decades, the Retail Business Holidays Act forced most Ontario retailers — the LCBO included — to close on nine listed days. In 2026 the province amended it, and Family Day and Victoria Day were removed from the Act entirely, along with the municipal power to force closures on those two days. Retailers now choose.

The LCBO chose to open. On Victoria Day, Monday, May 18, 2026 — the first one under the new rules — it opened 304 stores from 10 AM to 6 PM. That's a real change in behaviour after years of a province-wide shutdown, and it's why the "nine holidays" number you'll still find on older pages (including some official-looking ones) no longer describes reality.

Two important limits on that change:

• It applies to Family Day and Victoria Day only. Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day keep their closure rules untouched. Don't assume a September or October Monday works like May did.
• "Open" means select stores, not all of them. 304 locations is a fraction of the roughly 680 the LCBO runs. Most stayed dark. On these two days the store locator isn't optional — it's the whole answer.

Every LCBO holiday date: the rest of 2026

The two that will actually catch you this year are Labour Day and Thanksgiving Monday. Both are closed doors, both land on a Monday, and both mean the Sunday before is your last retail window — a Sunday that closes at 6 PM.

Every LCBO holiday date: all of 2027

Note the 2027 Easter: Good Friday is March 26 and Easter Sunday is March 28 — unusually early, and a back-to-back pair of closures with one trading day wedged between them. Mark it now, because an early Easter is exactly the kind of thing nobody sees coming.

Easter Sunday: the closure nobody remembers

Every year, the same trap. Easter Sunday is a full LCBO closure across Ontario — not reduced hours, not select stores. Closed.

It catches people because it doesn't feel like a "real" stat holiday. Easter Sunday isn't a public holiday under Ontario's Employment Standards Act, most people don't get the day off, and Easter Monday — which many treat as the actual holiday — isn't a closure day at all. So the mental model is inverted: people plan around a Monday that's open and walk into a Sunday that's locked.

Worse, it's a two-punch weekend. Good Friday is closed. Saturday is open. Easter Sunday is closed again. If you're hosting Sunday dinner, Saturday is your only shopping day of the entire long weekend — and it's the busiest LCBO day of the spring for exactly that reason.

The bigger trap: holiday eves, not holidays

Here's the thing the closure list doesn't tell you. Most people don't get burned by a closed store — they check, they see it's closed, they plan. They get burned by the day before, when the store is open but shuts hours earlier than usual.

• Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve — open, but most locations close around 6 PM. On New Year's Eve especially, that's a cutoff that lands before the party starts. The single most common alcohol emergency of the year is a 9 PM realization on December 31.
• The Sunday before a closed Monday — regular Sunday hours, which means closing at 6 PM. Labour Day weekend and Thanksgiving weekend both run this pattern: Saturday normal, Sunday until 6, Monday nothing.
• The holiday itself, when it's "open" — Civic Holiday, Family Day, and Victoria Day openings run reduced hours, often 10 AM–6 PM. A store that normally goes to 9 PM may lock up at 6.

The through-line: on any holiday weekend, treat Saturday as your real shopping day. Sunday is a half-day and the Monday is a coin flip. For a crowd, our party quantity calculator does the bottle math so you only make the trip once.

What's still open when the LCBO is closed

A closed LCBO doesn't mean a dry day. It means a narrower set of options, each with a specific limit.

Licensed convenience, grocery, and big-box stores

Since 2024, licensed corner stores, grocers, and big-box retailers across Ontario sell beer, wine, cider, coolers, and ready-to-drink cocktails. Most stay open on the holidays that close the LCBO, which makes them the practical backstop for a Christmas Day beer run.

Two hard limits, though:

• No spirits. Anywhere. Vodka, whisky, rum, gin, and tequila remain LCBO-only in Ontario — the carve-out the expansion deliberately left in place. If the plan involves cocktails, a closed LCBO is a genuine wall.
• Sales stop at 11 PM. The same rules that put beer in the corner-store fridge cap the sale time at 11 PM, regardless of how late the store itself stays open.

There's also a 7.1% ABV ceiling on what these stores can carry, which quietly rules out a lot of stronger craft beer and most fortified wine. Full breakdown in our guide to buying alcohol at Ontario convenience stores.

Licensed delivery

Ontario permits licensed liquor delivery between 9 AM and 11 PM, every day — including the seven holidays the LCBO is closed. That window is set by the AGCO and it did not change under the July 2026 update to the province's liquor distribution rules, despite a fair amount of noise suggesting otherwise.

This is the one option that carries spirits on a closure day, which is what makes it different from the corner store rather than just more convenient than it. It's also worth being blunt about what the window means: anyone advertising "24/7" alcohol delivery in Ontario is describing something the province does not license. Ordering can run around the clock; the bottle legally arrives between 9 AM and 11 PM. We wrote the honest version of that in how late you can actually get alcohol delivered in Ontario.

Locally, that's the gap we fill after the shelves go dark — in Hamilton and in Niagara Falls.

Bars and restaurants

Licensed establishments serve until 2 AM and mostly stay open on holidays. They can't sell you a bottle to take home, but on Christmas Day or Easter Sunday, a licensed room is often the only place still pouring.

Quick reference: which holidays close what

For the everyday picture — regular weekday hours, Sunday's 6 PM close, and Beer Store timing — see our full guide to LCBO and Beer Store hours in Ontario.

FAQ

How many holidays is the LCBO closed? Seven: New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Monday, and Christmas Day. It used to be nine, but Ontario removed Family Day and Victoria Day from the Retail Business Holidays Act in 2026, and the LCBO now opens select stores on both.

Is the LCBO open on Christmas Eve? Yes, but it closes early — most locations shut around 6 PM on December 24. Christmas Day itself is a full closure, and Boxing Day is open, sometimes on reduced hours.

Is the LCBO open on Easter Sunday? No. Easter Sunday is one of the seven full province-wide closures, and Good Friday is too. The Saturday between them is open, and it's the only shopping day of the long weekend. Easter Monday is a normal trading day.

Is the LCBO open on Boxing Day? Yes. Boxing Day is not a closure day for the LCBO, though individual stores often run reduced hours. In 2027 it falls on a Sunday, so expect Sunday hours — typically closing at 6 PM.

Is the LCBO open on Victoria Day and Family Day now? Select stores, yes. Ontario removed both from the Retail Business Holidays Act in 2026, and the LCBO opened 304 locations from 10 AM to 6 PM on Victoria Day that May. Most stores still stayed closed, so check the store locator rather than assuming.

Is the LCBO open on the August Civic Holiday? Yes — most stores open, usually on reduced hours. The Civic Holiday isn't a statutory holiday in Ontario at all; it's a municipal one, which is why it never appeared on the closure list. Details in our Civic Holiday guide.

Can I get alcohol delivered on a holiday when the LCBO is closed? Yes. Licensed delivery operates 9 AM to 11 PM every day of the year, holidays included, and it's the only holiday option that carries spirits — corner stores are limited to beer, wine, cider, and coolers under 7.1% ABV.

Don't plan around a locked door

Seven closures, four early-closing eves, and two Mondays that are now a maybe. The pattern underneath all of it is simple: the LCBO's holiday schedule is built around retail convenience, not around when people actually drink.

That's the gap. On the seven days the shelves are dark — and on the many more nights the doors shut at 6 or 9 — there's still a legal way to get beer, wine, and spirits to your door across Niagara and Hamilton, from 9 AM right up to the 11 PM cutoff. No lineup, no closed sign, no driving.