North Somerset's Christmas 2026 bin dates are not out yet. Last year's full revised table, the Sunday catch-up, and when the council usually publishes.
North Somerset Council has not yet published its Christmas and New Year collection dates for 2026/27. In each of the last two years it put them out in the first week of December, with a Sunday catch-up day and a table of revised days. Until this year’s arrives, last year’s table below is the best guide to the shape, but it is not this year’s schedule.
The quick answer
- Christmas 2026 dates are not published yet. Last year the council’s notice was being shared by town and parish councils by 8 December 2025, and the year before by 5 December 2024.
- Crews do not work on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s Day, so every round after Christmas slips by a day or two until the council catches up.
- Last year normal collections resumed on Monday 12 January 2026, after a Sunday catch-up on 28 December 2025.
Check your own revised dates on the council’s collection calendar by postcode once they are loaded. The council says the North Somerset Council app sends tailored reminders too.
Last year’s revised days, and they are only a guide
This is the council’s own festive poster for 2025/26, circulated to parish councils in December 2025 (Wraxall and Failand Parish Council, reposting North Somerset Council, 8 December 2025). These are last year’s dates, not this year’s.
| Normal collection day | Revised collection day |
|---|---|
| Monday 22 December | No change |
| Tuesday 23 December | No change |
| Wednesday 24 December | No change |
| Thursday 25 December | Sunday 28 December |
| Friday 26 December | Monday 29 December |
| Monday 29 December | Tuesday 30 December |
| Tuesday 30 December | Wednesday 31 December |
| Wednesday 31 December | Friday 2 January |
| Thursday 1 January | Saturday 3 January |
| Friday 2 January | Monday 5 January |
| Monday 5 January | Tuesday 6 January |
| Tuesday 6 January | Wednesday 7 January |
| Wednesday 7 January | Thursday 8 January |
| Thursday 8 January | Friday 9 January |
| Friday 9 January | Saturday 10 January |
The year before followed the same idea over a shorter stretch. For 2024/25 the council said collections would run on Sunday 29 December to help with the catch-up, and that everything would be back to normal from Monday 6 January 2025 (Clevedon Town Council, reposting North Somerset Council, 5 December 2024).
Why this year will look different
The calendar is the reason last year’s table cannot simply be moved on a year. Christmas Day 2026 is a Friday. Boxing Day falls on Saturday 26 December, so the bank holiday moves to a substitute Monday 28 December. New Year’s Day is Friday 1 January 2027 (GOV.UK bank holidays).
North Somerset normally collects on bank holidays: its standing instruction is to put bins out on your usual day (North Somerset Council). The festive notices say the exceptions are Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day themselves. So in 2026 the two Friday rounds, 25 December and 1 January, are the ones certain to move. Whether the substitute Monday on 28 December runs as normal, and which day the catch-up falls on, is what the council’s notice will settle. We will not guess it.
Extra recycling, wrapping paper and trees
The council’s Christmas recycling and waste page sets out the rules that do not change from year to year.
- Wrapping paper goes in the black bin. The council cannot recycle any wrapping paper, because processors will not take it. Plain brown paper with the tape removed can go in with cardboard.
- Extra cardboard is collected if it is flattened, broken down to the size of your recycling box and left next to your containers. If you have a lot, put a little out each week.
- Glass goes in the recycling box, visible, for crew safety.
- Small electricals about the size of a kettle, including broken fairy lights, can go in a loosely tied bag on top of your recycling box.
- Bins out by 6.30am on your collection day, revised or not.
The council says an extra 47 tonnes of food waste was collected in the week after last Christmas compared with a normal week.
Real Christmas trees
Garden waste subscribers could put a real tree out on their first collection day after Monday 12 January 2026 last year, either chopped into the green bin or whole beside it, no more than two metres long, with the pot and all decorations removed. Anyone can take a tree to a recycling centre. The 2027 date will be on the same council page.
Recycling centres over Christmas
All three centres at Weston-super-Mare, Portishead and Backwell need a booked slot. They close at noon on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and shut on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Backwell is also closed every bank holiday, so it will be shut on the substitute Monday 28 December. The full winter hours for each site, the booking rule and the van permit are on our North Somerset bin days page.
Still to be confirmed
- The 2026/27 revised collection days and the catch-up day: expected in the first week of December, going by the last two years.
- The 2027 Christmas tree collection start date.
We will add this year’s table here as soon as the council publishes it. If you are driving to a recycling centre or into town over Christmas, our parking and roadworks pages cover the rest.
Last checked 25 September 2026.
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