Carbon County Commissioners are giving county employees an early Christmas present.

On Thursday, the board voted 2-0 to extend the Christmas holiday to include Dec. 26, 2014, as a paid holiday for employees. Dec. 26 falls on a Friday this year. Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard was not present at the meeting as he is recovering from surgery.Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that one of the reasons for the holiday extension is because a lot of employees take off the day after Christmas as a vacation day, meaning there are minimal employees working, and hardly any business takes place that day.Commissioner William O'Gurek said the other reason for the decision is because it is a way the commissioners can thank the employees for all they do throughout the year."We are giving our employees the opportunity to spend a longer weekend with their families," he said, noting that if employees were scheduled off on Dec. 26, they now can use that vacation day at another time this month. "We felt it would be nice. It's a little bit of a reward and is a way to thank the employees for all their work in these offices."They didn't say anything when they didn't get a raise one year when we were in trouble financially, so this is just a little gesture to show them our appreciation."The county has been extending the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to include Black Friday for over a decade, and decided because of the way Christmas fell this year, to do the same thing.