When Is Black Friday 2026? Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday Dates

Black Friday 2026 is on Friday, November 27, 2026, the day after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, because US law sets it on the fourth Thursday of November. Cyber Monday follows on November 30, 2026. Small Business Saturday is November 28 and Giving Tuesday is December 1.

The dates follow a fixed rule, so they can be worked out years ahead. Below are the 2026 dates, the 1941 law behind them, how Canada’s Thanksgiving differs, and what the latest National Retail Federation (NRF) and Adobe figures say about the shopping weekend.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday 2026 dates

Day	2026 date	What it is
Thanksgiving	Thursday, November 26	Federal holiday, fourth Thursday of November
Black Friday	Friday, November 27	Day after Thanksgiving, traditional start of holiday sales
Small Business Saturday	Saturday, November 28	Promotion for independent and local stores
Cyber Monday	Monday, November 30	Online sales day after the Thanksgiving weekend
Giving Tuesday	Tuesday, December 1	Day promoting donations to charities

Thanksgiving is a federal holiday. Black Friday is not, although some states and many employers give the day off, which is one reason it became such a big shopping day.

Also readWhen Does Daylight Saving Time End in 2026? Date and Time

When is Black Friday 2026?

Black Friday 2026 is on November 27. It is always the Friday after Thanksgiving, so it can fall anywhere between November 23 and November 29. In 2026 it lands late in that range, which leaves 28 days between Black Friday and Christmas Day.

Many retailers now start “Black Friday” deals well before the day itself, sometimes in early November. The Friday remains the anchor date, though, and NRF data shows it is still the busiest day of the Thanksgiving weekend for shoppers.

Black Friday is also on November 27, 2026 in the UK, Europe and Australia. Those countries do not celebrate Thanksgiving, but retailers there adopted the US date for their own sales during the 2010s.

Why Thanksgiving is on the fourth Thursday of November

The fixed date comes from a 1941 law. Before that, the date was set each year by presidential proclamation, and the result was a short but heated dispute.

Lincoln and the last Thursday

From 1863, during Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, Thanksgiving was observed every year on the last Thursday of November. Later presidents kept issuing proclamations for that day.

Roosevelt’s 1939 change

In 1939, the last Thursday of November fell on November 30, the last day of the month. According to the National Archives, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday one week earlier, to the second-to-last Thursday, to give retailers a longer Christmas shopping season. Not every state followed, so for two years Americans did not all celebrate on the same day. Critics nicknamed the earlier date “Franksgiving.”

The 1941 law

Congress settled the matter in 1941. The National Archives records these steps:

1. October 6, 1941: the House passed a joint resolution making the last Thursday in November the legal Thanksgiving Day.
2. December 9, 1941: the Senate amended it to the fourth Thursday, so the holiday would fall in the same week every year, even in Novembers with five Thursdays. The House agreed.
3. December 26, 1941: Roosevelt signed the resolution into law.

Because November always has at least four Thursdays, the fourth one can only fall between November 22 and November 28. That is why Thanksgiving never drifts into December and why Black Friday is so easy to predict.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday dates for the next three years

Year	Thanksgiving	Black Friday	Cyber Monday
2026	November 26	November 27	November 30
2027	November 25	November 26	November 29
2028	November 23	November 24	November 27

How Canada’s Thanksgiving is different

Canada celebrates Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October, not in November. In 2026 that was Monday, October 12. In 2027 it will be October 11.

The Canadian Encyclopedia says the first official annual Thanksgiving in Canada was held on November 6, 1879, and Parliament set the date each year after that. On January 31, 1957, Parliament proclaimed the second Monday of October as the permanent date.

It is a statutory holiday in every province and territory except Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Canadian retailers also run Black Friday sales on the US date, so Canadian shoppers see the same November 27 sales in 2026.

	United States	Canada
Rule	Fourth Thursday of November	Second Monday of October
2026 date	November 26	October 12
Fixed by	Joint resolution signed December 26, 1941	Parliamentary proclamation of January 31, 1957
Long weekend	Thursday to Sunday for many workers	Saturday to Monday

Where the name Black Friday comes from

The earliest known uses of “Black Friday” for the day after Thanksgiving date from the early 1950s. Around that time, police in Philadelphia used the term for the heavy crowds and traffic that came with the start of the Christmas shopping season. In 1961, city officials and merchants tried to rename it “Big Friday,” but the new name did not catch on.

A more upbeat explanation appeared in the early 1980s: that retailers ran at a loss for most of the year and moved “into the black,” or into profit, on the day after Thanksgiving. It is a popular story, but it came decades after the term was already in use.

Cyber Monday is newer. Shop.org, a division of the NRF, coined the term in 2005 after retailers noticed a jump in online buying on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Black Friday shopping facts from 2025

The 2025 figures are the most recent full set and give a sense of the scale to expect in 2026.

Shopper numbers (NRF)

• A record 202.9 million people shopped in stores or online between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday 2025, according to the NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics. The previous record was 197 million in 2024.
• Black Friday was the most popular day, with 80.3 million in-store shoppers and 85.7 million online shoppers.
• Cyber Monday drew 75.9 million online shoppers, up from 64.4 million in 2024.

Online spending (Adobe Analytics)

• Cyber Monday 2025 online spending reached $14.25 billion, up 7.1% on the year before, a record for a single day.
• Black Friday online spending was $11.8 billion, up 9.1%.
• Thanksgiving Day itself brought in $6.4 billion online, up 5.3%.
• The full Cyber Week, from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, totaled $44.2 billion, up 7.7%.
• Mobile devices accounted for 57.5% of Cyber Monday online sales, and buy now, pay later spending passed $1 billion on that day.

How to prepare for Black Friday 2026

1. Make a list early. Note the items you actually need and their current prices in early November, so you can tell whether a Black Friday price is a real discount.
2. Use price history tools. Browser extensions and retailer price-tracking features show whether a product was cheaper earlier in the year.
3. Check return windows. Many stores extend holiday return periods, but rules differ. Read the policy before buying gifts.
4. Compare Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Some categories, especially electronics, are discounted on both days. If an item is not urgent, waiting three days can help you compare.
5. Watch for scams. Fake delivery texts and lookalike shopping sites rise in late November. Type the retailer’s address yourself instead of clicking links in messages. Our guide on how to spot phishing messages covers the warning signs.
6. Be careful with buy now, pay later. It is easy to stack several plans across different stores. Add up all repayments before you check out.

If you plan to spend the long weekend at home, our list of holiday movies to watch this Christmas and New Year is a good place to start.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: National Archives: Congress establishes Thanksgiving, Adobe: Cyber Monday 2025 results, NRF Thanksgiving weekend survey results (via PDR Mag), The Canadian Encyclopedia: Thanksgiving Day.