How to Create a Recurring Outlook Meeting Skipping Public Holidays

Setting up a recurring meeting in Outlook is easy, but the default recurrence pattern does not automatically skip public holidays. When your weekly team meeting falls on a holiday, you must cancel or delete that single occurrence manually. This article explains how to use Outlook’s built-in tools and a calendar add-in to create a recurring meeting that automatically skips public holidays. You will learn two methods: modifying the recurrence pattern manually for each holiday and using a free tool to apply a holiday-based exception.

Understanding How Outlook Recurrence Handles Holidays

Outlook’s recurrence feature lets you schedule meetings that repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. However, the recurrence engine does not contain a built-in holiday calendar. When you create a recurring meeting that repeats every Monday, Outlook will schedule it for every Monday of the year, including Christmas Day if it falls on a Monday. The application does not check whether a date is a public holiday in your region.

To skip holidays, you have two options. The manual method involves editing or deleting individual occurrences after the series is created. The automated method relies on a third-party add-in that reads a holiday calendar and adjusts the recurrence pattern accordingly. Before you begin, ensure you have the correct public holidays for your country loaded into your Outlook calendar. You can add a holiday calendar through File > Options > Calendar > Add Holidays.

Why Manual Deletion Is Not Ideal for Long Series

Deleting one occurrence at a time works for a few holidays per year. But if your meeting runs for several years, you must remember to delete each holiday instance in advance. If you forget, attendees will receive an invitation for a meeting that should not happen. The automated method is more reliable for series that span multiple years or involve many holidays.

Steps to Create a Recurring Meeting and Manually Skip Holidays

This method works for any Outlook version on Windows 10 or Windows 11. You will create the recurring meeting first, then delete each holiday occurrence.

1. Open Outlook and go to Calendar
   Press Ctrl+2 to switch to the Calendar module. Click New Meeting on the Home tab.
2. Set the meeting details
   Enter the subject, location, and attendees. Set the start time and end time for the first occurrence.
3. Click Recurrence in the Meeting tab
   In the Options group, click Recurrence. The Appointment Recurrence dialog opens.
4. Choose the recurrence pattern
   Select Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly. For a weekly meeting, select Weekly and check the day of the week. Set the Range of Recurrence to End After a specific number of occurrences or End By a specific date.
5. Click OK to close the dialog, then click Send
   The meeting is now recurring. Attendees receive the invitation for the full series.
6. Open the recurring meeting in Calendar
   Double-click any occurrence. A dialog asks if you want to open the entire series or just this occurrence. Select Open this occurrence.
7. Delete the holiday occurrence
   With the single occurrence open, click Delete on the Meeting tab. In the Confirm dialog, select Delete this occurrence. The holiday instance is removed from the series.
8. Repeat for each holiday date
   Use your holiday calendar to find all dates that conflict. Open each occurrence and delete it.

This approach is time-consuming if you have many holidays. To reduce effort, you can delete multiple occurrences at once using the Calendar view. Switch to Month view, hold Ctrl, and click each holiday meeting. Right-click one of the selected meetings and choose Delete. Select Delete these occurrences.

Using a Free Add-In to Automatically Skip Holidays

Several free add-ins for Outlook can exclude holidays from a recurring meeting. One example is Recurrence+, available from the Microsoft AppSource store. These tools read your installed holiday calendar and remove dates that fall on holidays.

1. Install the add-in
   Open Outlook, click Get Add-ins from the Home tab. Search for “Recurrence+” or “Holiday Skipper.” Click Add to install.
2. Add your country’s holidays to Outlook
   Go to File > Options > Calendar. Under Calendar options, click Add Holidays. Check your country and click OK. The holidays appear as full-day events in your calendar.
3. Create a new recurring meeting
   Click New Meeting, fill in the details, and set the recurrence pattern as described in the manual method. Do not send the invitation yet.
4. Open the add-in panel
   In the Meeting window, click the add-in icon in the ribbon. The add-in panel appears on the right side.
5. Select the holiday calendar to use
   In the add-in, choose the holiday calendar you added. The add-in scans the recurrence range and lists all dates that conflict with holidays.
6. Apply the exclusions
   Click Apply or Exclude. The add-in removes the holiday occurrences from the series. Click Send to distribute the invitation.

The add-in modifies the recurring series before you send it. Attendees will never see the holiday dates in their calendar.

Common Mistakes When Skipping Holidays in Recurring Meetings

Accidentally Deleting the Entire Series Instead of One Occurrence

When you double-click a meeting in the calendar and choose Open this occurrence, you are editing only that single date. If you accidentally select Open the series, any changes you make affect all future meetings. To avoid this, always read the dialog box carefully before clicking.

Forgetting to Update the Recurrence After Adding a New Holiday

If your organization adds a new public holiday mid-year, your existing recurring meeting will not skip it automatically. You must either delete that occurrence manually or use the add-in to re-scan and update the series. Open the series, use the add-in again, and send an update to attendees.

Using the Wrong Holiday Calendar

Outlook supports multiple countries’ holidays. If you select the wrong country, the tool will skip dates that are not holidays in your region. Verify your holiday calendar by opening it in the Calendar view and checking a few known dates.

Item	Manual Deletion	Add-In Automation
Description	Delete each holiday occurrence by hand	Use a free add-in to exclude holidays automatically
Time required	2-5 minutes per holiday per year	5 minutes to set up, then zero per holiday
Accuracy	Prone to human error if you miss a date	High, provided the holiday calendar is correct
Ideal for	Short series (under 10 occurrences) or few holidays	Long series (multiple years) or many holidays
Requires add-in installation	No	Yes

Manual deletion works for simple cases, but the add-in saves time and prevents errors for recurring meetings that span many months or years. Choose the method that fits your meeting’s duration and your tolerance for manual work.

Now you can create a recurring meeting that skips public holidays using either manual deletion or a free add-in. Start by adding your country’s holidays to Outlook through File > Options > Calendar > Add Holidays. If your meeting runs for more than six months, install a holiday-skipping add-in to automate the process. As an advanced tip, you can combine the add-in with a monthly review of your recurring meetings to catch any newly announced holidays that were not in the original calendar.