While most of us are dozing in front of a film, English footballers are on the busiest stretch of their year. Here is how the festive schedule works, and why it is loved and grumbled about in equal measure.
In a typical season, Premier League and English Football League clubs play several matches between roughly 20 December and 2 January. Boxing Day, the days around 29–30 December and New Year's Day are the classic dates. Exact fixtures change every year depending on which weekday Christmas falls on, broadcasting picks and cup ties.
Weekend before Christmas → 26 Dec → 28–30 Dec → 1 Jan → early-January FA Cup third round
48h
Sometimes all that separates two festive league games.
This is a general pattern for English football, not an official fixture list. Real dates are published by the leagues each summer and adjusted for television.
| Window | Premier League | EFL (Championship to League Two) | Non-league | Germany (Bundesliga) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~20–23 Dec | Weekend round | Weekend round | Weekend round | Final round before winter break |
| 24–25 Dec | No matches | No matches | No matches | Break |
| 26 Dec | Full or near-full Boxing Day round | Full round, many local derbies | Local derbies, big crowds | Break |
| 27–30 Dec | Another round, often spread over days | Another round | Often one more game | Break |
| 1 Jan | New Year's Day round (some years 2 Jan) | New Year's Day round | New Year's Day derbies | Break |
| Early Jan | FA Cup third round | FA Cup third round for many clubs | Leagues resume | Resumes mid-January |
Part of the answer is tradition. Holiday fixtures have drawn big crowds since the nineteenth century, and clubs, supporters and broadcasters all treasure them. The other part is arithmetic. A Premier League season has 38 league rounds, and the EFL Championship has 46. Add domestic cups, European competitions and international breaks, and every free date counts. The holidays, when lots of people are off work and keen to go to a match, are simply too valuable to leave empty.
For fans, it is a feast. You might see your team three times in ten days, including at least one away trip to a nearby ground. For broadcasters, it is prime viewing, as families gather around the television between meals.
Many top managers from overseas, used to winter breaks at home, have voiced concerns about the festive load. Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp were among those who publicly worried about games coming within 48 hours of each other, arguing that tired players are more likely to pick up injuries. Squad rotation becomes essential, and festive fixtures are often when younger players get their chance.
Ask players and you get mixed answers. Some say they miss family Christmases, training on the morning of the 25th and staying in hotels on Christmas night. Others love the atmosphere and say it is the moment they dreamed of as children. Most clubs try to give a short Christmas Day break, with a light session and a family meal at the training ground.
Germany's Bundesliga has a winter break that usually lasts around three to four weeks over Christmas and New Year, though it has been shortened in some seasons. Italy's Serie A and Spain's La Liga have experimented over the years, sometimes playing just before or after the holiday but normally keeping Christmas itself clear. In Scotland, the Scottish Premiership has often used a short winter break in January.
England's own compromise came in 2019–20, when the Premier League introduced a mid-season break in February, staggered across two weekends. The festive programme stayed intact, which tells you how much it is valued.
Check public transport carefully, because many services run reduced timetables between Christmas and New Year. Book tickets early for Boxing Day, which is often a sell-out. Wrap up warm, pack a flask, and remember that kick-off times can move at short notice for television. Most of all, enjoy it: the festive fixture list is one of the few football traditions that has survived largely unchanged for more than a century.