It’s hard to imagine nowadays that football on Christmas Day was a yearly tradition, but for Everton and clubs up and down the country, it was normal.
In the modern era the Christmas period is the busiest time of year, with more fixtures than pigs in blankets on your plate.
This hasn’t always been the case, though, with football on Christmas Day played ever since Victorian times up until as recently as the 1950s.
Everton were, of course, part of that tradition, but they were also behind the reason why teams no longer play on 25 December in the UK.
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Everton once played two games on Christmas Day
Football on Christmas Day was traditionally the one game of the year that nobody wanted to miss.
FourFourTwo revealed that 3.5m fans watched the 1949 edition of festive football but you have to go all the way back to 1888 when the Toffees were actually forced to play two games in one day before playing a third game on Boxing Day
As floodlights weren’t a thing back then, there was a need to cram as many games in as possible before it became dark.
Eventually though, as floodlights were introduced, attendances began to creep back down as families preferred to stay inside in the warmth.
Is there any football on Christmas Day?
In the UK, you can only find one place where football is played on Christmas Day.
As part of the Northern Irish football calendar’s tradition, the Steels and Sons Cup final is played on 25 December.
On a global scale, some countries still play games on 25 December. Egypt, Morocco, Tanzania and Tunisia will all have domestic fixtures ongoing.
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