The grocery list is half done, your mom wants to know when you’re coming over and your kids want to know whose house they’ll wake up at on Thanksgiving morning. If you share parenting time after a divorce or breakup, that last question can turn a happy holiday into a tense text thread. (Spoiler: the parent who cooks the biggest turkey doesn’t automatically win.) Here’s how Indiana’s default holiday rules work, what can override them and how they affect your November weekends.
The default Thanksgiving rotation in Indiana
Indiana judges use the Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines when setting parenting schedules. The guidelines refer to the parent who has the children most of the time as the custodial parent and the other parent as the noncustodial parent.
Thanksgiving changes hands from one year to the next. When the year is even, the noncustodial parent has the holiday. When the year is odd, it belongs to the custodial parent. The holiday runs from 6 p.m. Wednesday to 6 p.m. Sunday. That means the noncustodial parent has Thanksgiving in 2026, from Nov. 25 through Nov. 29.
Court orders and agreements that change the default
Your own court order Some families use the standard guidelines, while others have their own holiday schedule written into the order. Older orders may also follow an earlier version of the guidelines.
You and your co-parent can agree to change the schedule. For that agreement to be enforceable, the guidelines say it should be in writing, signed by both parents and approved by the court. A text message alone may not be enough if a dispute comes up later.
The guidelines also generally apply to unmarried parents who establish paternity. A judge may set different rules, though, if there are concerns about violence, substance abuse or a parent leaving with the child.
Holiday weekends and your regular schedule
The holiday schedule takes priority over your normal weekends. So if your regular parenting time overlaps with Thanksgiving and the holiday belongs to your co-parent, you do not automatically get another weekend to replace it. On the flip side, if a holiday gives you two weekends in a row, you also keep the third one so the alternating pattern stays on track. Children under age 3 follow a different setup, since the guidelines limit holiday time for infants and toddlers to a set number of hours instead of a full four-day weekend.
Your Thanksgiving plan for 2026
Before you buy the pie, pull out your parenting time order and find the holiday section. If it follows the guidelines, the even-year rule likely decides 2026, but custom terms usually control. And if you and your co-parent want something different, put the deal in writing and file it before the holiday rush so everyone at the table knows where they’re supposed to be.