What's Open on Christmas Day in Provo (2026 Guide)

Events September 2, 2026 14 min read ✓ Updated September 2, 2026

JoAnn Giordano Editor-in-Chief, Provo.com

There is a particular silence that settles over Provo on the morning of December 25, and it is deeper than the silence of most American cities. Utah Valley already closes more than other places do; a large share of the restaurants close every Sunday, the two big universities empty out for a three-week break, and the retail chains that anchor University Parkway follow national holiday policy. Stack all of that on a single day and you get a valley where the freeway is empty, the parking lots are empty, and a person who wakes up needing milk, a prescription, or a hot meal cooked by someone else has to know exactly where to go.

This guide is that list, organized the way you actually need it: what is open, what is closed, what opens for a few hours, and what the day is good for. Christmas Day 2026 falls on a Friday, which matters in a couple of places noted below. Everything here is the pattern as of early September 2026, based on how the same businesses have handled the holiday in recent years and on the national policies that govern the chains; hours are set store by store and change late, sometimes the week of, so the single most useful piece of advice in this article is the boring one. Call first. A business that does not answer its phone at 10 a.m. on Christmas morning is almost always closed, whatever its listing says.

The Shape of the Day

Start with the framework, because it explains everything below. Christmas Day closures in Provo come from three overlapping sources. The first is federal-holiday policy at the national chains: Walmart, Target, Costco, the grocery chains, the banks, the post office, and most sit-down restaurant chains close on December 25 as a matter of corporate rule, and no local manager can override it. The second is local practice: nearly every family-owned restaurant, shop, and service business in the valley closes for Christmas, and many of them are already closed from the afternoon of the 24th through the 26th. The third is the Sunday pattern: the businesses that close on Sundays here — Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, most of the locally owned restaurants, the LDS-owned Deseret Book and the church-affiliated bookstores — close on Christmas too, without exception.

What survives that triple filter is a short list with a recognizable shape. Businesses that serve travelers: gas stations, hotels, the airport in Salt Lake. Businesses that follow a national open-on-Christmas policy: the 24-hour diners, the movie theaters, some drugstores. Businesses that are open because Christmas is their busiest day: the ski resorts. And the essential services: the hospital, the police non-emergency line, the roads. That is the list. Almost nothing else is open, and the rest of this guide is the detail.

Restaurants That Reliably Open

The honest version of the restaurant section is that you should not plan on a specific restaurant being open on Christmas Day in Provo unless you have confirmed it with a phone call in the week before. With that caveat, here are the categories that have opened year after year.

The 24-hour diners. Denny's has locations in Provo and Orem, and the chain has historically kept its restaurants open on Christmas Day; the same is true of IHOP, which has an Orem location on University Parkway. These are the places that serve pancakes at noon on December 25 to a room that is half families in matching pajamas and half people working a shift somewhere. Expect a wait at midday. Black Bear Diner in Orem has opened on Christmas with a reduced schedule in recent years and is worth a call.

Chinese, Thai, and Indian restaurants. The tradition of Chinese food on Christmas exists in Utah Valley for the same reason it exists everywhere: many of these restaurants are open on a day when nothing else is. Along State Street in Orem and Provo, a handful of Chinese and Thai places have opened on December 25 in past years, sometimes with a holiday menu and always with a line for takeout. Cafe Namasthe and Little India in the Orem–Provo corridor have listed holiday hours in past years; none of these is guaranteed, and the ones that open often do so only for dinner.

Hotel restaurants. The Provo Marriott downtown has served breakfast on Christmas Day in the past, and the hotels along University Parkway and at Thanksgiving Point usually offer at least their standard breakfast to guests, sometimes to walk-ins. If you have out-of-town family in a hotel, this is the easiest Christmas breakfast in the county.

A few chains. Chili's, Applebee's, and Olive Garden generally close on Christmas Day nationally; Golden Corral locations often open, and the Orem location has in past years. Cracker Barrel, which opens on Christmas everywhere else, does not have a Utah County location. Starbucks keeps some stores open on shortened hours, typically the freestanding drive-throughs rather than the ones inside Targets and grocery stores. Fast food is spotty: most McDonald's and Taco Bell locations are franchise decisions, and in this valley a fair number close.

What closes. Everything locally owned that we cover in the best restaurants in Provo guide, with essentially no exceptions: Communal, Black Sheep Cafe, Station 22, the Riverwoods restaurants, Tucanos, the Brazilian rodizios, the burger and sandwich places, the bakeries, the ice cream shops, the food trucks. Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out, Cafe Rio, and Kneaders close. The Skyroom at BYU is closed with the campus. If a restaurant you love is on the list of places that close on Sunday — and our guide to restaurants open on Sunday is the inverse of this article — it is closed on Christmas too.

Groceries: The Answer Is No

There is no grocery store open on Christmas Day in Utah County. Walmart closes every store nationally; so do Target, Costco, Smith's, Harmons, Macey's, WinCo, Sprouts, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and the Latino and Asian markets along State Street. This is the single most common Christmas-morning problem in the valley, and the only fix is planning.

The practical deadline is Christmas Eve afternoon. Most of the grocery chains close early on December 24 — Smith's and Harmons have typically closed between 6 and 8 p.m., Costco around 5, Walmart and Target between 6 and 8 — and the stores are crowded from mid-morning on. The last calm shopping window is usually the morning of the 23rd, which is a Wednesday in 2026. Our Thanksgiving guide covers the same dynamic for that holiday, and the lesson transfers: the day-before store is the real one, and the morning-of store does not exist.

If you are already on the 25th and short an ingredient, the fallback is the convenience store. Maverik, 7-Eleven, and the larger Chevron and Sinclair stores stock milk, eggs, butter, bread, and a surprising amount of baking basics, at prices that will annoy you. The 7-Eleven locations in Provo and Orem have historically stayed open on Christmas; Maverik stores generally do as well. For anything that is not on a gas-station shelf — a turkey, a specific spice, fresh produce beyond bananas — the answer is a neighbor, and in this valley that is a real option.

Gas Stations and the Roads

Fuel is the easy part. Pay-at-the-pump works at every station whether or not the store is staffed, and the major chains — Maverik, Chevron, Sinclair, Holiday, 7-Eleven — keep at least their freeway-exit locations staffed on Christmas Day, many on a normal 24-hour schedule. The stations at the University Parkway, Center Street, and University Avenue exits off I-15, and the cluster at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, are the ones we would count on. Car washes are closed, and so are the tire shops, the oil-change chains, and the auto parts stores, which matters if you are the one with the flat on the drive to grandma's. AAA and roadside services run on the holiday.

The roads themselves are as empty as they get. I-15 through the valley is quiet all day, and the drive to Salt Lake — normally 45 minutes to an hour — runs closer to 40 on Christmas morning. The exception is the canyons. Provo Canyon fills with Sundance traffic by mid-morning, and the Cottonwood Canyons in Salt Lake County are notorious on holiday powder days; UDOT's traction-law requirements apply on both, and a storm can close either. Check UDOT's canyon status and the resort's own road updates before you leave, not when you get there.

Pharmacies and Medical Care

Pharmacies. Walgreens and CVS keep some stores open on Christmas Day, usually with the front store open on shortened hours and the pharmacy counter open for a shorter window still, or not at all. Which stores are open is decided regionally and posted on the chains' store-locator pages a week or two before the holiday. Smith's, Walmart, Costco, and Harmons pharmacies close with their stores. The safe approach is to refill anything that will run low before the 24th; most insurers allow an early refill for a holiday.

Emergency care. The emergency department at Utah Valley Hospital in Provo is open 24 hours, as it is every day, and our complete guide to Utah Valley Hospital covers where to park and which entrance to use. American Fork Hospital, Orem Community Hospital, Timpanogos Regional in Orem, and Mountain View in Payson also run their emergency departments through the holiday. Christmas Day is, statistically, a busy day in emergency rooms — kitchen burns, falls on ice, chest pain that people have been ignoring for a week — so a non-emergency visit will wait behind those.

Urgent care. Most of the valley's urgent care clinics close on Christmas Day, including the ones inside grocery stores. A few — typically the larger standalone InstaCare and urgent-care locations run by the hospital systems — have opened on shortened hours in past years. If it is not an emergency and it can wait a day, the 26th is when everything reopens. Our guide to urgent care versus the ER in Provo explains where the line is.

Pets. The emergency veterinary hospitals in Utah County and Salt Lake County are open on Christmas Day; the regular vet clinics are closed. If your dog eats the chocolate, that is an emergency-vet trip, not a wait-until-tomorrow.

Movies, Skiing, and the Things That Are Actually Open

This is the part of the day that surprises newcomers, because after the closures above, it seems like nothing should be open. Several things are.

Movie theaters. Christmas Day is a national moviegoing holiday, and the theaters in Utah Valley participate fully. Cinemark's locations in Provo, Orem, and American Fork open on December 25, usually with a full slate of showtimes; the Megaplex theaters at Thanksgiving Point and Geneva in Vineyard typically open as well. The studios release their big holiday titles the week before or on the day itself, and the afternoon and evening shows sell out in this valley. Buy online, aim for a matinee if you want a quiet theater, and expect the concession line to be the longest of the year.

Skiing. Sundance is open on Christmas Day and it is one of the resort's busiest days, since every family in the valley is off work and school at once. Holiday-week lift tickets are on the peak pricing tier and should be bought online in advance; the Alpine Loop Road up from Provo Canyon backs up by mid-morning and the resort's lower lots fill. Brighton, Solitude, Snowbird, and Alta are all open, with the same holiday crowds. Our skiing near Provo guide covers the pass and ticket math, and if the idea of standing in a lift line on Christmas does not appeal, the tubing hill at Soldier Hollow and the Nordic center at Sundance are both open and rarely feel crowded.

Ice skating. Peaks Ice Arena in Provo has historically run a holiday public-skate session on Christmas Day; the schedule is posted in December and changes year to year. Seven Peaks Ice Arena and the outdoor rinks that pop up at Gardner Village and elsewhere in Salt Lake County have their own holiday hours.

Lights. Every light display in the valley is still on. The Provo City Center Temple grounds are lit through the season; the residential displays in Orem's and Provo's decorated neighborhoods stay up through New Year's; the drive-through shows, where they operate, usually run Christmas night. The big one — the lights on Temple Square in Salt Lake — runs nightly through January 1, and our guide to Temple Square in December from Provo covers the drive, since the trains do not run. Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point has historically been closed on Christmas Day itself and reopened the 26th; check the current year's calendar, which we track in our Luminaria guide.

The outdoors. Every trail, park, and canyon in the county is open, and a Christmas-afternoon walk is one of the most Utah Valley things a family does. Bridal Veil Falls is frozen and spectacular and the Provo River Parkway to it is usually packed down; Rock Canyon and the Bonneville Shoreline Trail are open; Utah Lake State Park's gate is open for a fee. Dress for the inversion, which by late December is often sitting on the valley and makes the mountains the only place with clean air.

Hotels. Every hotel is open, obviously, and their pools, gyms, and lobbies are available to guests. The Provo Marriott, the Hyatt Place and Residence Inn on University Parkway, and the SpringHill Suites at Thanksgiving Point are the ones most likely to have a staffed restaurant or a grab-and-go breakfast.

What Is Closed, in Full

For completeness, because the question is usually asked in the negative. Closed on Christmas Day in Provo and Utah Valley:

All grocery stores and big-box retailers. All malls — Provo Towne Centre, University Place, the Outlets at Traverse Mountain, and the Shops at Riverwoods — and essentially every store in them. Every bank and credit union. The post office; no mail is delivered, and the FedEx and UPS stores are closed, though both carriers run limited holiday operations. Provo City offices, the Utah County offices, the DMV, and the courts. The Provo City Library and every other library in the county. The Provo Recreation Center, the Orem Fitness Center, the Lehi Legacy Center, and the other municipal rec centers. BYU and UVU, entirely: the Museum of Art, the Bean Museum, the Marriott Center, the campus dining, the bookstore. Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, all four venues, including the Museum of Natural Curiosity and the Ashton Gardens; Luminaria has typically been dark on the 25th. Provo Beach, the trampoline parks, the arcades, the escape rooms, the climbing gyms, and nearly every indoor-play business, though some reopen on the 26th with holiday hours. The Provo City Center Temple and every other temple, which close for Christmas Day; the grounds stay open and lit. Most churches hold Christmas services on the 24th; the Latter-day Saint congregations that make up most of the valley do not hold Christmas Day services in a normal year, and since the 25th is a Friday in 2026, the Sunday services are the 27th.

UTA runs no bus, TRAX, or FrontRunner service on Christmas Day; it has run a reduced schedule on Christmas Eve that ends early in the evening. Provo Municipal Airport's commercial flights operate; Salt Lake City International runs its full schedule and is busy.

The Day Before, Which Is the Real Deadline

Christmas Eve in Provo is a half day for nearly everything, and it is where the planning happens. Grocery stores close early, as noted. The malls close early — typically 5 or 6 p.m. Most restaurants that are open at all on the 24th close by mid-afternoon; some of the locally owned places are already closed for the whole week. The ski resorts run normal hours. The last FrontRunner north to Salt Lake usually leaves Provo in the early evening.

The local rhythm, if you are new: the morning of the 24th is the last errand run, the afternoon is when the valley goes quiet, and by dark the only cars on University Parkway are going to family dinners and the Christmas Eve services at the Catholic and Protestant churches, which are full. From that point through the morning of the 26th, the list at the top of this article is the whole commercial landscape.

If You Are Working, Traveling, or Alone

A fair number of people spend Christmas Day in Provo without a family table to sit at: hospital and hotel staff, students who did not fly home, missionaries between assignments, people who moved here in November. For them, the open list matters more than it does for anyone else, and a few additions belong here.

The diners are the community on Christmas Day, and nobody there will think it is strange that you came alone. The movie theater at 2 p.m. is full of people in the same situation. The hospital cafeteria at Utah Valley — our River Rock Cafe guide covers it — serves a Christmas meal to staff and visitors and is open to the public. Several churches and community groups in the valley host free Christmas dinners; the Food and Care Coalition in Provo has historically served a holiday meal, and the parish and congregation dinners are usually announced in mid-December. Our holiday giving guide has the current list and how to volunteer, which is the other way to spend the day with people.

The Short Version

Open: the 24-hour diners, a few Chinese and Thai restaurants, hotel restaurants, gas stations, some 7-Elevens and Maveriks, some Walgreens and CVS stores on short hours, the movie theaters, Sundance and the Cottonwood resorts, the emergency rooms and emergency vets, the trails and canyons, the light displays, and the hotels.

Closed: every grocery store, every mall and big-box store, the banks, the post office, the city and county, the libraries, the rec centers, both universities, Thanksgiving Point, the temples' interiors, nearly every locally owned restaurant, and UTA.

Deadline: Christmas Eve afternoon, for anything you will need on the 25th.

And the last rule, which we will repeat because it is the one that actually saves the day: call first. Hours on this holiday are set store by store, posted late, and changed without notice, and the listings that show up in a search are often no more than a machine's guess. Five minutes on the phone on the 23rd beats a drive to a locked door on the 25th.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Are any restaurants open on Christmas Day in Provo?

A few, and they are almost all the same kind of place: 24-hour diners and the national chains that stay open on federal holidays. Denny's and IHOP locations in Provo and Orem have historically served on December 25, Black Bear Diner in Orem has opened with reduced hours in recent years, and the Chinese and Thai restaurants along State Street are the local version of a Christmas tradition. Hotel restaurants — the Provo Marriott's in particular — tend to serve at least breakfast. Nearly every locally owned restaurant, and nearly every chain that closes on Sundays, is dark. Hours change every year and the lists that circulate online are often just search-engine guesses, so call before you drive; a phone that rings unanswered at 10 a.m. on the 25th usually means closed.

Is Walmart open on Christmas Day?

No. Walmart closes every U.S. store on Christmas Day, and so do Target, Costco, Smith's, Harmons, Macey's, WinCo, and Trader Joe's. The only groceries you will find on December 25 in Utah Valley are at gas station convenience stores and a handful of 7-Elevens, which sell milk, eggs, bread, and butter at gas-station prices. If you are short an ingredient, the last real grocery run is Christmas Eve, and most stores close early that day — commonly between 6 and 8 p.m. — so treat the afternoon of the 24th as the deadline.

Which gas stations are open on Christmas in Provo?

Maverik, 7-Eleven, and most Chevron and Sinclair stations with a convenience store stay open on Christmas Day, some on their normal 24-hour schedule. Pay-at-the-pump works even when the store is locked, so fuel itself is rarely a problem. What varies is whether the store inside is staffed; the freeway-exit stations along I-15 in Orem, Lehi, and Springville are the safest bets for a staffed counter. Car washes, oil-change shops, and tire stores are closed.

Are pharmacies open on Christmas Day in Utah County?

Some, with shortened hours. Walgreens and CVS typically keep a subset of stores open on December 25, often closing the pharmacy counter earlier than the front store, while Smith's, Walmart, and Costco pharmacies close with the rest of the building. If a prescription runs out over the holiday, the reliable move is to refill it before the 24th. For an urgent need on the 25th itself, the Utah Valley Hospital emergency department at 1034 North 500 West in Provo is open, and its outpatient pharmacy can fill a prescription written there. Check the chain's store-locator page for holiday hours the week before rather than trusting a listing that says 'open 24 hours.'

Can I go skiing at Sundance on Christmas Day?

Yes. Sundance runs its lifts on Christmas Day and it is one of the busiest days of the resort's season, because everyone in the valley has the day off and the same idea. Lift tickets are priced on peak-day tiers over the holiday week and should be bought in advance online; the Alpine Loop Road up Provo Canyon fills early. Brighton, Solitude, Snowbird, and Alta in the Cottonwood Canyons are also open. If you would rather not fight the crowd, the Nordic center at Sundance and the tubing hill at Soldier Hollow are open too and rarely feel full.

Are movie theaters open on Christmas?

Yes, and Christmas Day is one of the biggest movie days of the year nationally. Cinemark's theaters in Provo, Orem, and American Fork open on December 25, usually with a normal or near-normal showtime schedule, and the studios time major releases for the date. Buy tickets online for the afternoon shows, which sell out for the big titles; the morning matinee is the quiet slot. The Megaplex at Thanksgiving Point and Megaplex Geneva in Vineyard are typically open as well.

Do the buses and FrontRunner run on Christmas Day?

UTA has historically run no service on Christmas Day — no buses, no FrontRunner, no TRAX. That means the last train north from Provo is on Christmas Eve, when UTA usually runs a reduced schedule that ends early. If you are planning a Temple Square trip on the 25th, it is a drive. Confirm UTA's holiday schedule on rideuta.com in December; the holiday service pattern is published annually and occasionally changes.

What can a family actually do in Provo on Christmas Day?

More than it looks. The Christmas lights are still on: the Provo City Center Temple grounds, the Orem and Provo neighborhoods that decorate, and Temple Square's lights in Salt Lake all run through New Year's Day. Every trail in the county is open — the Provo River Parkway, Bridal Veil Falls (frozen), the Bonneville Shoreline Trail — and a Christmas afternoon walk is a real local tradition. Sundance skis, the Cinemarks show movies, Peaks Ice Arena has historically opened for a holiday public skate, and the hotel pools are open to guests. Everything else — museums, Thanksgiving Point, the rec centers, the libraries, restaurants, stores — is closed, which is exactly why the day feels the way it does here.

JoAnn Giordano

Editor-in-Chief

JoAnn Giordano is the editor-in-chief of Provo.com. Having lived in and around Utah Valley for years, she leads the site's editorial direction with a focus on the comprehensive, honest local coverage that helps residents, students, and newcomers feel at home. When she's not shaping Provo.com's restaurant and neighborhood coverage, she's exploring the valley's trails and tracking down the best new spots on Center Street.

What's Open on Christmas Day in Provo (2026): Restaurants, Gas, Pharmacies, Movies, Skiing, and What Isn't