Imagine opening your presents, then hurrying out to a packed ground for a midday kick-off. For more than half a century, that was a normal British Christmas.
From the early years of the Football League until the late 1950s, Christmas Day fixtures were a fixed part of the English calendar. Matches often started late morning or around midday so that players and fans could get home for Christmas dinner. For many working people, it was simply the best day of the year to see a game.
1965
Blackpool v Blackburn Rovers closes the chapter.
In the late Victorian and Edwardian era, most people worked six days a week, and holidays were short. Christmas Day was one of the rare days when factories and shops closed and almost everyone could attend. Clubs depended on gate money to pay their players, so a holiday fixture with a big crowd was very welcome. Railway companies ran special trains, and local derbies brought whole towns out.
The double-header habit grew out of this. Clubs frequently played the same opponents on 25 and 26 December, home one day and away the next. It halved the planning, kept travel costs down and gave both sets of supporters a home game during the holiday.
The most famous Christmas Day story of all happened on 25 December 1937 at Stamford Bridge. Charlton Athletic were playing Chelsea when thick fog rolled in, and the referee abandoned the match. Charlton goalkeeper Sam Bartram, peering into the gloom at the far end, did not hear the whistle. He stayed at his post for several minutes, thinking his team must be attacking, until a policeman emerged from the fog to tell him everyone had gone in. He later joked that his teammates were already in the bath.
During the Second World War, normal league football was suspended and replaced by regional wartime competitions. Christmas fixtures went ahead, but teams were often short of players because of military service. Clubs borrowed "guest" players, recruited spectators to make up numbers, and some scorelines became famously lopsided. These games kept spirits up at home during very difficult winters.
After the war, life in Britain changed. Christmas became a more private, family-centred holiday, helped along by the rise of television and the Queen's Christmas broadcast, first televised in 1957. Public transport largely stopped running on Christmas Day, making it hard for fans and staff to get to grounds. Players, too, wanted to spend the day with their children.
Fixtures thinned out through the late 1950s, and 1957 is generally cited as the last time a full programme was played on Christmas Day in England. A handful of games lingered on, and on 25 December 1965 Blackpool met Blackburn Rovers in what is remembered as the last top-flight Christmas Day league match in England. In Scotland, where Christmas was a less important holiday than New Year for much longer, Christmas Day matches carried on into the 1970s.
Christmas Day only became a public holiday in Scotland in 1958, which helps explain why Scottish clubs kept playing on the 25th for longer.
Every few years someone suggests reviving a Christmas Day fixture, and every few years the idea is politely parked. Broadcasters, police, stewards, transport staff and players' unions would all need to agree, and most people seem happy that the 25th now belongs to the family. Instead, many clubs open their doors on Christmas morning for community events, charity visits to hospitals, or players delivering presents.
That is still a lovely link with the old days. When the dinner plates are cleared, ask an older relative whether they ever went to a match on Christmas Day. Plenty of people born before 1950 can still remember the excitement of a morning game, the smell of the pies and the race home before the pudding.