Whilst many of the top leagues in European football have a winter break where they have time off to celebrate the festivities with their family and friends, the Premier League doubles down on playing. As such, the schedule is hectic for the players, but for the fans, it’s one of the most exciting periods of the season.

With December approaching, and the November international break having concluded, all 20 teams are preparing for a busy month of football, with the English top flight having chosen to abandon the winter break they trialled in the 2019/20 and 2023/24 campaigns.

One thing hasn’t strayed from tradition, though, and that is Boxing Day games, with eight festive fixtures being played up and down the country on December 26th this year. But what exactly is Boxing Day, and why does the Premier League insist on playing matches the day after Christmas?

The Premier League Tradition

Boxing Day is a term that has been traced back to Charles Dickens, who reportedly coined it in the Victorian era, and refers to when the rich would box up gifts to give to the poor, or their servants, whom they would also grant a day off to on the day after Christmas. This was so that they could go to their families in the form of Christmas boxes. Nowadays, it is a public bank holiday in the UK.

Football has long been a mainstay of Boxing Day, though long before TVs were in households, matches were even played on Christmas Day as well, though that tradition ended in England in1965, with festive fixtures solely being played the following day, ushering in a new tradition, and what we are familiar with today.

The first Boxing Day fixtures were said to have taken place in 1888, when Derby Country hosted Bolton Wanderers, and Preston North End visited West Brom. Since then, over 4,000 matches have been played on that day.

Manchester United are the most successful team on Boxing Day in terms of points scored, having picked up 174 points with a 52W-27L-18D record across their 97 games. This year, they will be looking to add to that tally when they travel to the Molineux Stadium to face Wolves.

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Goal Fests

Some of the league’s most infamous goals were scored on Boxing Day

When it comes to Boxing Day games, teams all across the league appear to want to gift their fans with a lot of goals.

For example, in 1963, across 10 First Division games, 66 goals were scored, with Ipswich Town on the wrong end of a 10-1 scoreline against Fulham, whilst on that same day, Burnley beat Man United 6-1, Blackburn won 8-2 away at West Ham, and West Brom forced a 4-4 draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

In the Premier League era, though, the highest-scoring Boxing Day fixture was when Manchester City triumphed over Leicester City in a 6-3 victory, with Raheem Sterling scoring a brace, while Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, and Riyad Mahrez all got on the scoresheet.

Former Spurs striker Harry Kane holds the record for most goals scored on Boxing Day with 10, of which he scored in seven consecutive appearances -the longest run in league history.

But while there have been many memorable scorelines, there have also been some goals scored that are etched into Premier League folklore, such as Cristiano Ronaldo’s free-kick against Sunderland, or Andy Cole’s emphatic long-range effort for Blackburn against Liverpool in 2002.

But perhaps no Boxing Day goal is as memorable as that of Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s scorpion strike that defied gravity, again against Sunderland when playing for Man United in 2016.

All in all, Boxing Day is a highlight day on the football calendar for fans across the UK, and with eight fixtures to be played this year, who will be next to etch their name into the history books?

Information gathered from Premier League unless otherwise stated – correct as of 29/11/24.

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