A Brooklyn councilman wants the MTA to spread some much-needed holiday cheer to straphangers by offering free rides on major holidays.

Councilman Justin Brannan, a south Brooklyn Democrat, plans to introduce a non-binding resolution next week requesting that the MTA offer gratis subway and bus rides on the designated days.

“Everyone loves when meters and alternate side parking is suspended in the city for holidays, so this would just level the playing field by giving something back to people who rely on mass transit and have to put up with all sorts of service issues the rest of the year,” Brannan said.

Brannan is targeting six major holidays for free fares: Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, L​​abor Day and Thanksgiving. Typically, MTA ridership is significantly lower during major holidays.

Brannan added that his goal isn’t just to “reward” mass transit commuters but “incentivize others to use public transportation.”

Although Brannan is “confident” a majority of councilmembers will get on board, the cash-strapped MTA could play Grinch.

MTA spokesman Shams Tarek said, “a proposal like this would force” the agency “to cut service and lay people off to make up more than $8 million per day lost on the busiest holidays.”

The plan isn’t exactly unprecedented.

Some cities, including Los Angeles and Milwaukee, offer free public transportation the evening of Dec. 31 into New Year’s Day to weed out drunk driving – something the MTA also briefly offered in the mid 1980s.

Others offer free fares on different holidays, including St. Paul, Minn., which provides free transit on St. Patrick’s Day.

In 2015, the MTA tapped into a massive $900 million-plus surplus it amassed at the time to shockingly offer riders an unexpected holiday gift. It cut a then-$2 base fare in half to a buck on weekends, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, as well as the last week in December.

“The MTA faces a dire fiscal crisis,” added Tarek. “We are undergoing an historic transformation to reduce operating costs and still face hundreds of millions of dollars in operating shortfalls.

“Farebox revenue is essential to maintaining safety and delivering the transportation people need while minimizing service cuts.”