Employers and entrepreneurs may not view declared holidays in the same way as their workers. Extra pay for work rendered on a holiday means extra operating costs. This may be especially true in case of a long stretch of holidays, like the one we'll have in December (by way of getting your opinion, through the comment section below, are you in favor of the long holidays?).

As may be gleaned from the list of official regular and special holidays in 2008, there’s one long weekend on the first week of December (Bonifacio Day, which is traditionally celebrated on November 30, was moved to December 1, which means that the Saturday to Monday from November 29-30 and December 1 constitutes a long weekend).

But that's just the bonus.

The real story is this — there’s a VERY long Christmas vacation up ahead. December 25 is Christmas Day. December 26, a Friday, is an additional special non-working day. December 27 is a Saturday and December 28 is a Sunday. December 29 is another special non-working day. December 30, a Tuesday, is Rizal Day. December 31 is another special non-working holiday being the last day of the year. January 1 (2009), a Thursday, is of course New Year’s Day (also, click here for the list of 2009 holidays).

So, you see, there are other things to look forward to in December in addition to Christmas shopping, the Pacquiao-de la Hoya fight and, of course, the 13th month pay and other bonuses. For those asking if January 2, 2009 is a holiday, maybe that’s asking for too much =). But hey, we’ll never know if the President Arroyo will issue a proclamation declaring January 2 as a holiday. (Update: January 2 was declared a special non-working holiday, through Proclamation 1695.)