Last Christmas every Winchester round from 25 December ran a day late until 10 January, and garden waste stopped for two weeks. 2026 dates are not out yet.
Winchester City Council has not yet published its Christmas and New Year bin collection dates for 2026. We checked its Christmas and New Year information page on 25 September and it still carries last year’s table, last updated on 23 January 2026.
Last year’s table is the best guide there is, because the council has used the same rule two years running. Here it is, with what it suggests for this year.
The quick answer
- Christmas week itself is normal up to 24 December. In both 2024 and 2025 the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday rounds before Christmas were collected as usual.
- From Christmas Day, every collection ran one day late for just over two weeks. Friday rounds moved to Saturday. Normal days returned on the second Monday of January.
- Garden waste stopped for two weeks over New Year in both years, and real Christmas trees were collected on garden waste day in the two weeks after that.
What 2025 looked like
This is the council’s own table for Christmas 2025. These are last year’s dates, not this year’s. It covered general waste, recycling, batteries and small electrical items.
| Normal collection day | Collected on |
|---|---|
| Monday 22 to Wednesday 24 December 2025 | No change |
| Thursday 25 December (Christmas Day) | Saturday 27 December |
| Friday 26 December (Boxing Day) | Monday 29 December |
| Monday 29 December | Tuesday 30 December |
| Tuesday 30 December | Wednesday 31 December |
| Wednesday 31 December | Friday 2 January 2026 |
| Thursday 1 January (New Year's Day) | Saturday 3 January |
| Friday 2 January | Monday 5 January |
| Monday 5 January | Tuesday 6 January |
| Tuesday 6 January | Wednesday 7 January |
| Wednesday 7 January | Thursday 8 January |
| Thursday 8 January | Friday 9 January |
| Friday 9 January | Saturday 10 January |
| Monday 12 January | No change |
The council’s page prints the Tuesday 30 December row as “Wednesday 31 December 2026”. That is a typing slip for 2025; the rest of the column runs in order.
The year before followed the same shape. The archived 2024/25 version of the page moved Christmas Day 2024 (a Wednesday) to Friday 27 December and ran every round a day late until Friday 10 January, collected on Saturday 11 January. Normal days returned on Monday 13 January 2025.
What that suggests for Christmas 2026
This year the bank holidays fall on Friday 25 December, Monday 28 December (the substitute day for Boxing Day, which is a Saturday) and Friday 1 January 2027, according to GOV.UK.
That is three bank holidays, two of them Fridays and one a Monday, so this year cannot be a straight copy of last year. If the council keeps its rule of running a day late from Christmas Day, the Friday rounds on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are the ones to watch. We are not going to guess the council’s table. We will put the real one here the day it appears.
Garden waste and Christmas trees
- Garden waste: there were no brown bin collections between Monday 29 December 2025 and Friday 9 January 2026. In 2024/25 the gap was Monday 30 December to Friday 10 January. Expect a similar two-week gap.
- Real Christmas trees: in January 2026 the council collected them from all properties on garden waste day in the weeks beginning 12 and 19 January. You did not need a garden waste subscription. The rules: take it out of the pot, strip every decoration, cut trees over 5ft in half, and the trunk must be no more than three inches across.
Extra rubbish, recycling and boxes
Last Christmas the council said crews would take:
- Extra rubbish in tied refuse sacks placed next to your general waste bin
- Extra recycling in clear sacks next to the recycling bin, never black sacks
- Cardboard boxes flattened and left beside the recycling bin
All of that is from the council’s 2025/26 Christmas page.
Do not rely on the downloadable calendar
The council’s address lookup offers a “Download Calendar” button. When we tried it on 25 September for an SO21 address, it returned a Biffa calendar for September 2023 to September 2024. Use the council’s Christmas page for the festive dates, not that PDF.
The council’s festive pages were first archived on 17 December in 2024. We have no record of an earlier publication date, so expect the 2026 table in the first half of December.
If you need the tip instead
Hampshire County Council runs the four recycling centres in the district, not Winchester, and every visit needs a booking. They close on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Hours, addresses and the booking rules are on our Winchester bin collection days page. If you are driving into the city for the Christmas market, our parking in Winchester page has the car parks and prices.
Still to be confirmed
- The 2026/27 revised collection table: expected in early December on the council’s Christmas page. This page will be updated with it.
- The garden waste pause and Christmas tree collection weeks for January 2027.
- Council office hours over Christmas, published on the same page.
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