Philip Newton's journal

All bank holidays that fall at weekends are replaced by the next available weekday as a day off in lieu of the holiday. Most bank holidays are fixed so that they always fall on weekdays eg. Good Friday, Easter Monday, the first & last Mondays in May, the last Monday in August. It's only Christmas Day, Boxing Day and new year's day that can fall at the weekend.

So we get a two week period when offices and stuff are very quiet - in most places Christmas Eve is either an unofficial half day/early finish/whole day off. Then this year we get Sat/Sun/Mon/Tue as weekend/bank holidays, Wed/Thu/Fri that are working days (the Fri having early finishes too 'cos it's new year's eve) Sat/Sun/Mon as weekend/bank holiday with Tue 4th being the first working day (except in Scotland where they get an extra bank holiday that day).