Petition · past parliament
Close restaurants on Christmas day
Rejected
16 signatures
What the petition asks
Recently a petition has started to stop shops opening on boxing day. We want to stop restaurants serving food on Christmas Day. Why should millions of people spend their Christmas day cooking for and serving others? Offices shut, shops shut, banks and all other non-essential businesses shut.
In New Zealand, restaurants do not open on Christmas day. People spend time with their families and friends at home, including serving staff.
In an ideal world everybody would have the day off...but there are people that are needed every single day, for example life saving medical staff, police etc.
Some privately owned pubs prefer to open to share drinks with friends. But no staff member should HAVE to spend up to 16 hours cooking for and serving others and miss their own Christmas.
In an ideal world everybody would have the day off...but there are people that are needed every single day, for example life saving medical staff, police etc.
Some privately owned pubs prefer to open to share drinks with friends. But no staff member should HAVE to spend up to 16 hours cooking for and serving others and miss their own Christmas.
Why it was rejected
There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.
Timeline
| 17 Nov 2016 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 21 Nov 2016 | Rejected by the Petitions Committee |
Key facts
Signatures
16
Status
Rejected
Rejected
21 Nov 2016
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.