If you are mediating your divorce, it means you are working together with your spouse to make important decisions. This can help things go more smoothly in the future.
One thing you will need to consider is your child custody plan. While doing so, it is important to think about how you want to address co-parenting over the holiday season. This is often different than the regular schedule. There are a number of options for a holiday schedule. Let’s look at a few.
Even and odd years
In some cases, parents will take different holidays. In even years, you may have the children on Thanksgiving. In odd years, you will have them on Christmas. For your ex, the schedule would be the opposite.
Dividing each holiday
Another option is to split up the specific holidays themselves. This typically only works when co-parents live relatively close to each other. For example, your children could spend the morning with your ex and then come to your house after lunch, so you both get to see them on the holiday.
Sharing the holidays
If the two of you are going through an amicable divorce, where you are still on relatively good terms, another option is simply to share the holidays as a family. For example, even though you are divorced, you could still meet up and spend Christmas together so that the children can celebrate with both of their parents at once. This usually works very well for the children, but it depends on the relationship their parents have and whether or not this is likely to lead to conflict.
These are a few examples to give you an idea of how your co-parenting schedule may be different over the holidays. Be sure you know what steps to take while establishing it. Having experienced legal guidance can help.