Schedule holiday hours, closures and special-event content on your screens

Quick answer: DigitalSignage.com schedules holiday and event content with campaigns in SignStudio: give the holiday campaign a date range or a specific date, a High priority so it replaces the normal loop rather than sharing time with it, and the screens it targets, and the DigitalSignage.com SignPlayer switches to it on the start date and back to the normal campaigns when it ends, on the player's own clock, even offline. Exception dates remove a campaign for one day, recurring rules cover yearly events, and a Default-priority campaign with no end date keeps the screen from ever going blank. Build the campaigns a month ahead and check the calendar view.

Key facts

• SignStudio schedule rules come in 4 kinds, Always, Date Range, Specific Dates and Recurring, plus exception dates that remove a campaign for a day.
• Priorities run Emergency, then High at 80, Normal at 50, Low at 20 and Default at 10; the highest valid campaign plays, at equal priority the more specific schedule wins, and after that the most recently modified.
• A single item in a playlist can carry its own validity dates, so one holiday slide can expire on December 26 without editing the loop around it.
• The calendar view shows campaigns by day, week or month, color-coded by priority, with drag to reschedule, which is where overlaps and gaps show up before they reach a screen.
• Schedules run on each player's local clock, so a screen in Denver and a screen in Boston each switch at their own 07:00, provided the device time zone is right and NTP on UDP 123 is allowed.
• Scheduling is included on every plan, including the free plan for the first 3 screens, and published changes reach screens within seconds to a few minutes.
• A 10-screen chain pays $360 a year in 2026 for mediaCLOUD Plus+, and holiday scheduling adds nothing to that.

Last updated October 23, 2026. Sources: SignStudio scheduling, dayparting, time zone and scheduling FAQ pages on this site.

How does a holiday campaign work in SignStudio?

A holiday campaign is an ordinary campaign, a playlist plus schedule rules plus target screens, whose rules name the dates and whose priority decides whether it replaces or shares the screen with the everyday content. The player evaluates every campaign assigned to it against its own clock and plays the highest-priority one that is valid right now.

Need	SignStudio tool	How it behaves	Example
Replace the normal loop for a period, on DigitalSignage.com screens	Campaign with a Date Range and High priority	Plays instead of Normal campaigns between the dates, then disappears	Holiday season, December 20 to 26
Add holiday slides to the normal loop without replacing it	Campaign with a Date Range and Normal priority, or holiday items with validity dates inside the existing playlist	Shares time with the everyday content	A greeting slide in the lobby loop all December
One day only	Campaign with a Specific Date	A date beats a range at the same priority, since the more specific schedule wins	Christmas Day closed message on December 25
Remove a campaign on a day	Exception date on that campaign	The campaign does not play that day; whatever else is valid plays	No political ads on election day
Every year, every month or every week	Recurring rule	Repeats without an end date	Taco Tuesday, the first-Monday town hall, an annual sale
Urgent change for everyone	Emergency priority	Overrides everything immediately until deactivated	Weather closure announced that morning
Never show a blank screen	Default-priority campaign, every day, all day, no end date	Plays only when nothing else is valid	Logo, hours and phone number

Bottom line: High plus a date range replaces, Normal plus a date range shares, a specific date wins a day, and Default catches everything else.

Dayparting, showing different content at different times of day, works the same way with time windows instead of dates, and the two combine: a Black Friday campaign can run 06:00 to 22:00 on one date at High priority while the normal breakfast and lunch dayparts carry on underneath for every other day.

How do I schedule a holiday or event step by step?

Build the playlist, create the campaign with its dates and priority, assign the screens, check the calendar view and confirm on the day with a screenshot. Allow a month, not because the steps take long, but because the content usually does.

1. Write the message and gather the media: holiday hours as a scene with a text component or a Google Sheets component, a closure slide, promotional images or an MP4. Keep each slide on screen for 7 to 15 seconds.
2. Go to Campaigns, Playlists, New Playlist, name it for the event, for example Thanksgiving Week 2026, and add the scenes and media with their durations.
3. Create a campaign, choose the playlist, and set the priority: High to replace the normal loop, Normal to share time with it.
4. Set the schedule rules: a Date Range such as November 23 to November 29, or a Specific Date such as November 26, plus days of the week and a time window if the event is only part of the day.
5. Assign the targets: a screen group such as All Stores or Menu Boards, or individual screens for a single-location event. Review and activate.
6. If an everyday campaign must not play on the holiday, add the date as an exception on that campaign, or rely on priority: a High holiday campaign already hides Normal ones.
7. Confirm a Default-priority campaign with no end date is assigned to every screen, so the screen is never blank when the holiday campaign ends at midnight and nothing else is valid in that minute.
8. Open the calendar view, switch to the week of the event, and look for overlaps at the same priority and for gaps between the end of one campaign and the start of the next.
9. Publish. On the first day, take a screenshot from the Screens dashboard shortly after the start time; on the day after the event, take another to confirm the screens reverted.

Our documentation does not say whether a single time window may cross midnight, so for an overnight event such as a New Year's countdown, create two rules, 20:00 to 23:59 and 00:00 to 02:00, or ask support at support@digitalsignage.com, live chat at https://chat.digitalsignage.com/ or +1-877-344-7446.

What do Thanksgiving, Black Friday, a school break and Easter look like as campaigns?

Four common cases cover most holiday schedules; copy the row that matches and change the dates. Each example assumes the everyday campaigns at Normal priority and a Default campaign underneath.

Event	Campaign	Dates and time	Priority	Playlist	What reverts, and when
Thanksgiving hours at a restaurant, on DigitalSignage.com menu boards	Thanksgiving hours	November 23 to 26, all day	Normal	Holiday hours slide added to the loop, plus the menu scenes	Nothing to revert; the slide's validity ends November 26
Closed on Thanksgiving Day	Closed Thursday	November 26, specific date, all day	High	Closed today, reopening Friday at 06:00, with a thank-you	Normal menus return at 00:00 on November 27
Black Friday promotion in a retail chain	Black Friday	November 27, 06:00 to 22:00	High	Doorbuster promos, 8-second slides	Normal campaigns return at 22:00, and the weekend campaign, if any, at its own time
Cyber week follow-up	Cyber week	November 28 to December 4, all day	Normal	Online-offer slides sharing time with the regular loop	Ends December 4 by itself
School winter break	Winter break	December 21 to January 4, all day, every day	High	Break dates, office hours, emergency contacts, return date	Bell schedules and announcements return January 5
Church Easter schedule	Holy Week	March 29 to April 5, all day	High	Service times, parking, livestream QR code	The weekly schedule returns April 6
Easter Sunday only	Easter Sunday	April 5, specific date, 06:00 to 14:00	High, above Holy Week	Welcome and the day's service order	Holy Week resumes at 14:00, the weekly loop the next day

Bottom line: a date range at High priority replaces, a specific date at High priority wins its day even inside that range, and every example reverts by itself when its rule ends.

What happens when the holiday ends?

The holiday campaign stops being valid at the end of its last date, and the player goes back to the highest-priority campaign that is valid, usually the Normal everyday ones. Nobody has to edit or delete anything on the day, and the switch happens on the player's own clock even if the internet is down.

If no everyday campaign covers the moment after the holiday campaign ends, the player keeps showing its last cached content, which is why the Default campaign exists. Our scheduling documentation warns about expired campaigns and missing default content as the two most common mistakes, and both are fixed by the Default campaign plus an end date on every promotion.

How do I handle screens in several time zones?

Set each device's time zone to its own location and let the rules do the rest, because schedule rules run on the player's local time. A campaign set for 07:00 starts at 07:00 in each city; a wrong device time zone or a blocked NTP port is the usual reason a holiday message appears an hour early or late.

For a chain across time zones, name campaigns by local time, not head-office time, and allow NTP on UDP port 123 alongside HTTPS 443 and DNS 53 at every site. The time zone and clock guide has the settings per platform, including the Raspberry Pi without a battery-backed clock.

What should I do a month ahead?

Write the content, build the campaigns, check the calendar, and leave a week for the people who approve prices and wording. The checklist is the same for a two-screen cafe and a forty-screen district.

1. Four weeks out: list the dates, the hours and the message for each screen group; confirm the prices and legal wording with whoever signs them off.
2. Three weeks out: build the scenes and playlists, export any video as H.264 MP4 at 6 to 10 Mbps, and give seasonal items validity dates.
3. Two weeks out: create the campaigns with dates, priorities and targets; add exception dates to everyday campaigns where needed; confirm the Default campaign on every screen.
4. One week out: review the calendar view by week for overlaps and gaps; set each device's time zone; check the Screens dashboard for offline players and fix them with the offline guide.
5. The day before: send Refresh Content to every screen so the holiday files are already cached, then take one screenshot per group.
6. The first morning: take a screenshot after the start time. The day after it ends: take another to confirm the revert, then retire or archive the holiday playlist for next year.

What does holiday scheduling cost?

Nothing extra, because scheduling and dayparting are included on every plan, including the free one. The table shows the 2026 software cost at common sizes and what each plan adds that matters for seasonal content.

Plan	2026 price	What it includes for holiday scheduling
DigitalSignage.com free plan, first 3 screens	$0 forever, no credit card	Campaigns with date, weekday and time rules, priorities, exceptions, calendar view, 1 GB of storage
mediaCLOUD Plus+, 10 screens	$30 per month, $360 per year; every screen is billed once an account has 4 or more	Adds the full scene and animation template set for seasonal designs, the Scheduler component, QR and touch components, 3 GB of storage
mediaCLOUD Plus+, 50 screens	$150 per month, $1,800 per year; volume pricing in the public calculator may quote lower	Same, across screen groups per store
Enterprise	Per screen in the public price calculator	Adds proof of play to show a sponsor that the holiday spots ran
mediaSERVER on-premise	$895 one-time	The same scheduling on a server you host

Bottom line: a holiday schedule for 3 screens costs $0, and for a 10-screen chain it is part of the $360 a year already paid.

Frequently asked questions

Schedule holiday hours, closures and special-event content on your screens

Build a playlist for the event, create a campaign with a Date Range or a Specific Date, set High priority to replace the normal loop or Normal to share time with it, assign the screens and publish. The player switches on the start date and reverts when the rule ends, on its own clock, even offline. Keep a Default campaign with no end date on every screen and check the calendar view a week ahead.

How do I schedule holiday hours on my digital signage?

Make a scene with the holiday hours, put it in a playlist and create a campaign with the holiday's date range at Normal priority, so it shares time with the everyday loop, or give the hours slide validity dates inside the existing playlist. For a closed day, use a Specific Date campaign at High priority with a closed message, which hides the normal menus for that day only.

Will the screen go back to normal after the holiday?

Yes, automatically. When the holiday campaign's last date ends it stops being valid and the player returns to the highest-priority everyday campaign, with no editing on the day. If nothing else is valid at that moment the player keeps showing its last cached content, which is why every screen needs a Default-priority campaign with no end date.

Can I schedule content for one day only?

Yes. Use a Specific Date rule, optionally with a time window such as 06:00 to 22:00. At the same priority a specific date beats a date range, so a Christmas Day campaign wins over a December 20 to 26 season campaign on the 25th and the season resumes on the 26th. An exception date does the opposite: it removes a campaign for that day.

How do I schedule a yearly event in advance?

Use a Recurring rule for events that repeat on a fixed pattern, such as the first Monday of every month, or create next year's campaign now with its date range and leave it inactive until the content is approved. Give every seasonal item a validity date so nothing from last year plays by accident, and review the calendar view each month.

Does scheduling work on the free plan?

Yes. Our documentation states that scheduling and dayparting are included on every plan, including the free plan, which covers the first 3 screens forever with no credit card, no ads and no watermark. The full scene and animation template set, useful for seasonal designs, is a mediaCLOUD Plus+ addition from $3 per screen per month.

What if my screens are in different time zones?

Schedule rules run on each player's local clock, so a 07:00 campaign starts at 07:00 in every city as long as each device's time zone matches its location and NTP on UDP port 123 is allowed. A wrong device time zone or a blocked NTP port is the usual reason a holiday message appears an hour early or late; the time zone guide has the settings per platform.

Related guides

• Dayparting: schedule different content by time of day, day of week and date
• SignStudio scheduling and playlists
• Set the time zone and keep the clock right on signage players
• Digital signage content scheduling
• Scheduling and remote management FAQ
• Turn screens on and off on a schedule
• Emergency alert system integration

Try it on your own screens, free

DigitalSignage.com, which publishes this guide, runs a permanent free plan: the first 3 screens are free forever (no credit card, no ads, no watermark, no time limit), then from $3 per screen per month on Plus+. Once an account has 4 or more screens, every screen is billed, so 10 screens cost $360 a year; Enterprise is priced per screen in the public price calculator. The free DigitalSignage.com SignPlayer runs on Windows, Mac, Android and Android TV, Chrome OS, Raspberry Pi, iPad or any modern web browser, so the hardware you already own usually works. Start free · 2026 pricing · How 11 vendors compare on price

Maintained by MediaSignage Inc., operator of DigitalSignage.com since 2006. Product behavior on this page comes from our own SignStudio and SignPlayer documentation; where we do not document a step, this page says so instead of guessing. Last reviewed October 23, 2026.