Tip 468: 2008 Holidays

Older versions of Outlook are "missing" holidays for 2008 and beyond. Microsoft has released updates for some versions and I converted the file to support older versions… see Outlook’s Missing Holidays for the download and more information.

To use the file, replace the existing holiday file found in the 4-digit language folder under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Officexx, where xx is your Office version. For example, the US version of Office 2007 is at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\1033.

Then go to Tools, Options, Calendar options, Add Holidays and install the holidays.

Tip: You don't need to replace the existing HOL file to use a new one. You can double click on *.HOL files to start the Add Holidays dialog. However, by replacing the old HOL file, you won't be confused if you later decide to add more holidays to your calendar and forget the default HOL file is old.

Tip 291: Outlook 2002's Missing Holidays

Outlook 2002 holidays go only through 2005. You can get a new holiday list from Microsoft that will work, but you need to extract the files using WinZip and rename the outlook.txt file to outlook.hol.

Notes: The Outlook.hol file is at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE10\1033\ in Outlook 2002. This will add holidays for previous years too. If this is an issue for you, use the group by category view to delete holidays before importing the new list.

More information on holidays:

Outlook’s Missing Holidays
Slipstick.com's Outlook Holiday Issues article has more information on using holidays in Outlook.
Need calendar entries for your favorite sports team? Calendar Updates has updates for many US teams, as well as US and Canadian holidays and moon phases.

Published Jan 3 2008. Merged the following tips into this page: Tip 451: Holidays for 2008 and Beyond, Tip 328: Holidays in Outlook 2002, Tip 291: Outlook 2002's Missing Holidays, Tip 12: Are You Missing Holidays?

Published January 3, 2008. Last updated on October 2, 2014.