Every child has the right to early childhood education all year round. Autumn break, Christmas break, winter break and summer holiday bring changes to the opening hours of municipal early childhood education and pre-primary education. Those holidays are school holidays, so pre-primary education will not be provided at that time. When your own daycare centre or family daycare centre is closed, your child's early childhood education will be arranged at the nearest open daycare centre.
If your child is in early childhood education, your family will always be asked in advance if your child needs early childhood education also during the holidays. These questionnaires are important because the information is needed to secure enough staff, meals and special diets for children, as well as to plan the activities for the children.
Daycare centres and family daycare centres decide the opening hours and holidays based on the questionnaires, previous years' experiences and feedback from the parents and guardians. Daycare centres and family daycares notify guardians about these times. Similarly, private service providers inform customer families about the opening hours.
If you are just applying for a place in early childhood education, please note that if the start date is in the holiday period, your child may start in another daycare centre that is open during that holiday. The early childhood education fee always begins from the start date that you choose in the application. At the same time, your right to receive child home care allowance ends.
Holidays
During the autumn break, daycare centres are usually open, but groups and nearby daycare centres can combine their activities. In family daycare, the autumn break may cause changes, and family daycare managers inform you about these.
During Christmas and New Year, some of the daycare centres and family daycare centres will be closed based on the holiday questionnaire, previous years' experiences and the feedback received.
During the winter break, daycare centres are usually open, but groups and nearby daycare centres can combine their activities. In family daycare, the winter break may cause changes, and family daycare managers inform you about these.
In the summer, most children go on holiday. In this case, many staff members are also on holiday, so most of the daycare centres will be closed.
During summer activities, both children and staff may change daycare centres. In the summer, children and staff spend a lot of time outdoors.
Daycare centres open all summer 2026
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Applying for and starting early childhood education during the holidays
The guardian must submit an application for early childhood education no later than four months before the child needs a place. If you want your child to start early childhood education during the Christmas or summer holiday, please note that many daycare centres are closed. In this case, the child begins early childhood education at a daycare centre that is open during that holiday. The child returns to their own daycare centre after the holidays. Daycare centres’ holiday times have no impact on getting a place in early childhood education; the grounds for getting a place are the same.
For the child, it is easiest to start early childhood education so that the daycare centre, adults and friends around change as little as possible. The best time to do this is usually after the holidays, when all daycare centres and family daycares are normally open. You can, of course, apply for an early childhood education place whenever the child needs it. The decision on the child's early childhood education is made from the start date you choose on the application. The early childhood education fee starts from this same date and entitlement to Kela's child home care allowance ends on this same date.
In the summer, most of the daycare centres and family daycares are closed from Midsummer for 5–6 weeks onwards. In summer 2025, most of the daycare centres will re-open in the end of July. Schools and pre-primary education will start on 7 August 2025.
Example of a child’s start date: In the application for early childhood education, the parent or guardian has chosen 27 July 2026 as the start date. The decision on early childhood education is therefore made to begin on this date. If the child’s early childhood education centre is closed on 27 July 2026, the child will be offered care at a substitute daycare centre temporarily. The child’s own daycare centre opens on 3 August 2026, care at the substitute daycare centre will be provided until 2 August 2026. From 3 August 2026 onwards, the child will move to the daycare centre where they have been granted a place.
The family may begin the familiarisation period at the actual daycare centre once it reopens after the holiday on 3 August 2026. The family and the daycare centre staff will agree on the arrangements together. Fees for early childhood education will be charged from the start date stated in the family’s application, in this case 27 July 2026. The right to home care allowance ends on the same day. The date can no longer be changed, as it may have been one of the factors affecting the placement decision.
Learn more about the grounds for getting a place in early childhood education
How holidays affect the fees in early childhood education
If the child is absent from early childhood education during the autumn, Christmas and winter breaks, the absences will not be refunded in client fees. If a child in full-time pre-primary education and early childhood education needs full-time care also during the holidays, a fee will be charged according to the service need for the booked days.
For the summer, the information will be updated on the Early childhood education fee page.