How to Create and Customize a New Google Calendar (2024)

Google Calendar is a terrific tool for your events, appointments, reminders, and birthdays. But you don't have to just settle for the built-in calendars or those you can subscribe to; you can create your own.

For work, school, kids, and more, you can easily add and customize your own Google Calendar. Name the calendar what you want, give it a color to make its events pop, and even hide it if it's a seasonal calendar.

Related: How to Add, Hide, and Remove Birthdays in Google Calendar

Create a New Google Calendar

Visit the Google Calendar website and sign in. Click the gear icon on the top right to open the Settings Menu and pick "Settings."

On the left, expand Add Calendar and choose "Create New Calendar."

Give your calendar a name and optionally a description. Select your time zone from the drop-down box and click "Create Calendar."

You should then see your new calendar name display on the left below Settings For My Calendars. This is where you can customize the options for your calendar.

Adjust Your Calendar Settings

Select your new calendar below Settings for My Calendars to expand it. You can then go through the settings by selecting each one on the left or simply scrolling down the right side of the page.

Auto-Accept Invitations: Automatically add events to your calendar from invitations you receive, only add those that don't conflict with others, or don't display invitations at all.

Access Permissions for Events: Make your calendar available to others to see all event details or only if you're free or busy.

Share With Specific People: If you want to share your calendar with friends, family, or coworkers, you can click "Add People" and adjust the sharing permissions.

Event and All-Day Event Notifications: Set up default notification times for timed and all-day events.

Other Notifications: Choose to receive notifications via email for new, changed, or canceled events along with event responses and your daily agenda.

Integrate Calendar: Here, you have links for publishing your calendar or for iCal format. You can also use the embed code for your website or blog.

Related: How to Show a Google Calendar in Outlook

Remove Calendar: Should you decide to stop using the calendar later, you can head to this spot and either unsubscribe or delete the calendar completely.

All the above changes you make to your new calendar are saved automatically.

So when you finish, simply click the back arrow next to Settings on the top left to return to your Google Calendar main screen. You can head back to this area and update your settings or the calendar name when needed.

Customize Your Google Calendar

When you visit the main Google Calendar page, you can access your calendars on the left side. If the menu is hidden, click Main Menu (three vertical lines) on the top left to display it.

Display the Calendar Events

Then, expand My Calendars and you'll see the calendar you created. To display events for that calendar, be sure to check the box. If you want to hide the calendar or its events at any time, just uncheck it.

Color Your Calendar

To give your calendar a cool color, click the three dots to the right to open the Options. Pick a color or click the plus sign to add a custom color. All events for your calendar will display in the color you choose.

Hide Your Calendar

As mentioned, you can hide a calendar from your list if you like. This is useful for seasonal, school, or sports calendars that you don't use all year round. Click the three dots next to the calendar and pick "Hide From List."

To unhide the calendar later, head back to the Settings where you initially created it. On the left below Settings for My Calendars, click the eye icon for Show in Calendar List.

New calendars that you create in Google Calendar will sync with the application on your other devices as well. This is a great bonus to making a custom calendar.