How many days until Children's Day?

The United Kingdom has no single official children's day, but 20 November is the date that comes closest. It is World Children's Day, marked by the UN and UNICEF as the anniversary of both the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, which the UK ratified in 1991.

Schools mark it in a low-key way — assemblies about rights and fairness, blue-themed dress days run through UNICEF's Rights Respecting Schools programme, and lessons built around the Convention's articles. It is a teaching occasion far more than a gift-giving one, which is what distinguishes it from the children's days celebrated as family festivals elsewhere in Europe.

The date sits in a crowded stretch of November. Children in Need falls on the third Friday of the month, Anti-Bullying Week usually overlaps, and Remembrance Sunday has passed a week or so earlier, so schools often fold several of these into one block of the autumn term.

For families who do mark 20 November, this page gives the exact wait to the midnight that starts it. The date never moves, but it lands on a different weekday each year, which is worth checking if you are planning anything around school hours.