Holiday cheer: Gov. DeSantis gifts Florida workers 3 extra days off

Keeping up with tradition, Gov. Ron DeSantis is again going into “DeSanta Claus” mode and gifting government workers extra paid days off.

State employees can spend more time celebrating before and after Christmas Day and on New Year’s Eve.

That’s in addition to regular office closures during the holidays.

The days off include:

— Dec. 23, two days before Christmas.

— Dec. 24, Christmas Eve.

— Dec. 25, Christmas Day and the first day of Hanukkah.

— Dec. 31, New Year’s Eve.

— Jan. 1, New Year’s Day.

“Florida is in great shape, and we want to reward our state employees,” DeSantis said in a statement Tuesday.

“After a full year — including three costly hurricanes — we hope these extra days off allow for state workers to spend more time with their families and loved ones this holiday season.”

The extra days off — Dec. 23, Dec. 24 and Dec. 31, which are not automatically observed as paid holidays by state agencies — add to another bonus vacation day on the eve of Thanksgiving that DeSantis announced last month.

For those keeping score, the four extra days off this year are equal to the number DeSantis gave employees last year and one more than he gave in 2023.

It’s double what he gave during the holiday season between 2019 and 2021, when Florida workers received the weekdays before Christmas and New Year’s off.

DeSantis’ predecessors as Governor, Rick Scott and Charlie Crist, gave workers two days off ahead of Christmas and New Year’s as well.

Florida employees otherwise have nine paid days off each year: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, the Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

Full-time employees also get one personal holiday day off per year that doesn’t roll over to the next year if unused.