How to Change Holidays on iPhone Calendar: Your Complete Guide to Adding, Removing, and Customizing Holidays

Hey folks, it’s your friendly neighborhood holiday assistant. Lately, I’ve seen a ton of questions rolling in about how to change holidays on iPhone calendar. People get so confused when they see holidays they don’t want, or when their phone is showing holidays from a country they haven’t lived in for years. So let’s clear this up and get your calendar looking exactly the way you want it.

First off, let me tell you a little secret: the iPhone Calendar app doesn’t let you just tap on a holiday and edit it like a regular event. That’s the whole reason why so many people get stuck. You can’t change “New Year’s Day” to something else or delete “Labor Day” with a simple swipe. Nope, that’s not how Apple rolls. Instead, you’ve got to work with the tools Apple gives you to control which holiday calendars appear on your phone. There are basically three ways to go about it: you can toggle your built-in holiday calendar, subscribe to a totally different holiday calendar, or create your own custom holiday events that repeat every year. Let me walk you through each method.

Method number one is the ole trusty Settings toggle. If you’re just tired of seeing holidays from a certain country, go into your Settings app, scroll down to Calendar, and look for an option called “Alternate Calendars” or just “Holidays” depending on your iOS version. On a lot of iPhones, you’ll see something like “US Holidays” toggled on. That’s what’s putting those little event bubbles on your calendar. Flip it off, and boom—all the built-in holidays vanish. If you want to switch to another country’s holidays, you can tap on that holiday calendar option and pick a different region. Keep in mind, though, that this only controls whatever Apple already set up. It’s kind of a blunt instrument, but it works in a pinch.

Method two is where things get fun. If you want holidays that Apple doesn’t include—like state-specific holidays, international holidays, or even obscure ones like “National Donut Day”—you can subscribe to a public calendar. This is probably the best answer to “how to change holidays on iPhone calendar” if you’re looking for real control. All you’ve gotta do is find a holiday calendar online that publishes an .ics file, open the link on your iPhone, and tap “Add All” when the Calendar app asks. Before you know it, you’ll have a whole new month view packed with holidays. You can even do this right through the Calendar app by tapping the Calendars button at the bottom, hitting “Add Calendar,” and then “Add Subscription Calendar.” Paste in the web address of an .ics file, and you’re golden.

Now, method three is for the DIY folks. If you’re in charge of your own weird holiday schedule—like your office’s random days off or your kids’ school holidays—you’d probably be better off just creating your own events. Open the Calendar app, tap the plus sign, pick the date, give the holiday a name, and then set it to repeat yearly. This way, you get exactly the holidays you want and zero of the ones you don’t. It takes a little more time upfront,