Barnet moved five bin days last Christmas, some to a Saturday. Last year's full table, the garden waste pause, tree collections and when 2026 dates land.
Barnet Council has not yet published its 2026 Christmas bin collection dates. It does publish them every year, on its Christmas bin collections page, and last year the revised schedule was up by 11 December. Until the 2026 table appears, last year’s is the best guide to how the council handles the bank holidays, and it is set out in full below. This page will be updated as soon as the new dates are out.
The quick answer
- 2026 dates: not published yet. Expect them in late November or early December; last year’s page was live by 11 December 2025, and in 2023 the council announced its changes on 6 December.
- Last Christmas, five collection days moved, three of them to the day before, and two to a Saturday. Collections were back to normal from Monday 5 January.
- Garden waste stops for six weeks in winter. Last year the pause ran from 7 December to 18 January.
What changed last Christmas (2025)
This is the council’s own revised schedule for 2025/26 (Barnet Council, Christmas bin collections, archived copy of 11 December 2025). It covered the blue recycling bin and the black refuse bin.
| Normal collection day | Revised collection day |
|---|---|
| Monday 22 December 2025 | Saturday 20 December |
| Tuesday 23 December 2025 | Monday 22 December |
| Wednesday 24 December 2025 | Tuesday 23 December |
| Thursday 25 December 2025 (Christmas Day) | Wednesday 24 December |
| Friday 26 December 2025 (Boxing Day) | Saturday 27 December |
| Monday 29 to Wednesday 31 December | No change |
| Thursday 1 January 2026 (New Year’s Day) | Friday 2 January |
| Friday 2 January 2026 | Saturday 3 January |
Two things stand out. The Monday round was brought forward to the Saturday before, not pushed back, so anyone who assumed “a day late” missed it. And the rounds either side of Christmas Day were moved the other way: Christmas Day’s round came a day early, Boxing Day’s a day late. Normal days returned from the week beginning Monday 5 January 2026.
What it means for you: check your own day against the table rather than assuming a blanket “one day later” rule. Barnet does not run one, as our main bin collection days page explains, and the 2025 changes went in both directions.
How 2026 falls
Christmas Day 2026 is a Friday, Boxing Day is a Saturday, so the substitute bank holiday is Monday 28 December, and New Year’s Day is Friday 1 January 2027 (GOV.UK bank holidays). That is a different shape from 2025, when Christmas fell on a Thursday, so last year’s table will not simply repeat. The council has not said how it will handle the Monday bank holiday; this page will carry the new table when it does.
The 2025 table covered blue and black bins only. Weekly food waste collections started across the borough on 30 March 2026, so this will be the first Christmas with food bins on the round. Whether they follow the same revised days will be in the 2026 schedule.
Garden waste: the six-week winter pause
Green bin collections stop for six weeks every winter. In 2025/26 the pause ran from Sunday 7 December to Sunday 18 January, and the first collections of the new year were on Saturday 24 January or Saturday 31 January, depending on your round (Barnet Council, Christmas bin collections). In 2023 the pause started on 10 December (Barnet Council, December 2023 announcement).
One trap from last year: the council’s December 2025 services round-up gave the restart as “Saturday 25 January or Saturday 1 February”. Both of those dates were Sundays in 2026. The bin collections page itself had the correct Saturdays, 24 and 31 January, so trust that page over the news release.
Barnet’s postcode checker does not show green bin dates at all. To get your own dates, email streetscenedatateam@barnet.gov.uk and ask to go on the garden waste reminder list (see our bin collection days page).
Real Christmas tree collections
Last year the council collected real trees on Saturday 10 January or Saturday 17 January 2026. The rules: take off every decoration and all lights, cut the tree in half, and put it at the boundary of your property before 10 January (Barnet Council, council services over Christmas).
For an earlier pick-up, North London Hospice volunteers collected trees from Wednesday 7 to Friday 9 January 2026 for a small donation, covering the N2, N3, N11, N12, N20, NW11, EN4 and EN5 postcodes in Barnet among others. The 2026/27 dates for that appeal have not been announced.
You can also take a real tree to the Summers Lane tip yourself, which accepts them, or include one in a paid bulky waste booking within two weeks of Christmas.
What not to put in the blue bin at Christmas
The council’s own list from last year (Barnet Council, Christmas bin collections):
- Christmas cards with glitter or foil go in the black bin, not the blue.
- Metallic or glittery wrapping paper, and paper with sticky tape still on it, is not recyclable.
- Extra cardboard can go out beside the blue bin if it is flattened and in pieces no bigger than one metre square.
- Unwanted items and clothes can go to Summers Lane, where most can be recycled.
Other council services over Christmas last year
From the council’s December 2025 round-up (Barnet Council):
- Libraries closed at 1pm on Christmas Eve, were shut on 25, 26 and 28 December and on New Year’s Day, and closed at 5pm on New Year’s Eve.
- Council leisure centres were shut on 22, 25 and 26 December and 1 January, on reduced hours from 23 to 31 December.
- The contact centre ran as normal except on the bank holidays, with the out-of-hours emergency line answered throughout.
Still to be confirmed
- The 2026/27 revised collection days, including food waste. Expected late November or early December.
- The 2026/27 garden waste pause and restart dates.
- The January 2027 Christmas tree collection Saturdays, and whether North London Hospice runs its tree appeal again.
Planning a Christmas trip into town? See Barnet’s Christmas travel and our parking guide.
Have your say