When is Black Friday 2026?
Black Friday lands on Friday, November 27, 2026 this year. The date moves around the calendar from one year to the next, but the rule never changes: Black Friday is always the day after Thanksgiving, and since Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November, Black Friday is the fourth Friday. So while you'll want to check the exact date each year, you can count on it falling in late November, right as the holiday season swings into gear. The live countdown at the top of this page does the math for you, ticking down by one every day so you always know how long you've got.
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Black Friday dates 2026
Black WeekNovember 23 – 30
Black FridayNovember 27
Black WeekendNovember 28 – 29
Cyber MondayNovember 30
Why is it called Black Friday?
The name has a more interesting backstory than most people expect, and it didn't start as a celebration of shopping at all. In the 1950s and '60s, police in Philadelphia began using "Black Friday" to describe the chaos of the day after Thanksgiving, when huge crowds and heavy traffic flooded downtown ahead of the holiday shopping rush. It was a headache for officers working long, packed shifts, and the name stuck.
Retailers weren't thrilled with the gloomy label, so over time the meaning was flipped into something positive. The popular explanation today is that it's the day stores finally move from the "red" of operating at a loss into the "black" of turning a profit for the year. Whether or not that's the true origin, it's the story that made the name feel celebratory, and by the 1980s Black Friday was the biggest shopping day of the year.
Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the deals
These days Black Friday is less a single day and more a long weekend of deals. Many stores open early with doorbuster discounts, while plenty of the action has moved online, where you can shop the same sales from the sofa. The savings tend to run deepest on electronics, toys, clothing and gifts, exactly the stuff most people are hunting for ahead of the holidays.
Then comes Cyber Monday, the Monday right after Thanksgiving, the online counterpart to Black Friday. The term was coined in 2005 by the National Retail Federation after they noticed a spike in online orders once shoppers were back at their computers. Between the two, the whole stretch from Friday through Monday has become one big shopping event, so if you miss a deal on Friday there's often a second chance a few days later.
How to prepare and get a head start on gifts
A little planning goes a long way on Black Friday. The shoppers who come out ahead are usually the ones who made a list first, set a budget and checked prices in advance so they can tell a genuine bargain from a so-so one. It's also worth watching for early sales, since many retailers now start discounting before Thanksgiving rather than waiting for Friday itself.
Above all, Black Friday is the starting gun for holiday shopping, so it's the perfect moment to get a jump on gifts. A set of Christmas pajamas is an easy early win: soft, festive and the kind of thing the whole family looks forward to wearing once the season arrives. For more inspiration, our gifts are a good place to browse for everyone on your list, so a few presents sorted over the Black Friday weekend means the hardest part is already done.
