The Enduring Presence of Sports on Christmas Day in the US

While sports typically pause globally for Christmas, the United States maintains its schedule, with NBA Christmas games often showcasing top teams and players. This year marks the first holiday encounter between Stephen Curry and LeBron James since 2018. American families commonly gather to watch sports during the Thanksgiving holiday, observed on the fourth Thursday in November, and repeat this tradition a month later, making it an integral part of their holiday celebrations, akin to turkey dinners. For the current year, the NFL has announced the launch of a “new global holiday tradition,” which will include performances by Beyonce and Mariah Carey. Christmas Day sports originated as an English tradition, with Football League matches drawing substantial attendance from 1889 until declining interest resulted in the last game being played in 1965. Although the rise of television sets contributed to the decline of this tradition in England, TV simultaneously aided basketball in becoming a holiday fixture in the US. The NBA commenced playing on Christmas Day in 1947, during its second season, with games being televised from their inception. Christmas Day has evolved into the most-watched day of the NBA’s regular season, with 2011 standing as its peak year, when five games collectively garnered an average of 6.3 million viewers. Across various seasons, multiple Christmas games have been scheduled, totaling 277 NBA games played on December 25. Historically, basketball exclusively occupied Christmas Day, while American football dominated Thanksgiving. This dynamic has since shifted. The Kansas City Chiefs are scheduled for their second consecutive Christmas game, following last year’s match where 29 million television viewers watched the NFL champions defeat the Las Vegas Raiders. The NFL has held Thanksgiving games since its inaugural season in 1920, but it ventured into Christmas Day games in 1971 with two play-off matchups. The second of these extended into double overtime, becoming the longest game in NFL history at 82 minutes and 40 seconds. Reports indicated complaints regarding the disruption to dinner service, leading the NFL to refrain from scheduling another Christmas game until 1989. The 1989 Christmas game, featuring a 9pm kick-off, achieved significant success, drawing a television audience of 33 million viewers and remaining the most-watched Christmas game to date. Following 1989, Christmas Day was no longer exclusively for the NBA; if December 25 occurred on a weekend, at least one NFL game would be scheduled. Since 2020, NFL games have been played every Christmas, irrespective of whether December 25 falls on a weekday. Despite having played only 30 games on Christmas Day, all NFL matchups have garnered larger television audiences than NBA games, and this disparity is expanding. In the last four years, the average Christmas audience for an NBA game has declined from 4.5 million to a record low of 2.9 million last year. Conversely, the NFL’s audience has grown from 20.9 million to 28.7 million during the same period. Given that December 25 falls on a Wednesday this year, the NFL initially stated it did not intend to schedule a Christmas game for 2024. However, in March, the league declared a change of plans, and in May, the NFL finalized a three-year partnership with Netflix to stream Christmas games, extending beyond the US. Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice-president of media distribution, commented, “When we saw the viewership from this past year, really our fans spoke.” He added, “They are very much enjoying and wanting NFL football on Christmas. What we’ve seen the last couple of years is some unprecedented growth, and not just on Christmas, on Thanksgiving too.” The NFL’s most-watched regular-season game occurred on Thanksgiving in 2022, drawing 42.1 million viewers. One of last year’s Christmas games attracted 29 million viewers, ranking second only to the 1989 game. Schroeder further stated, “That opportunity, that belief we have that football brings people together – that’s even truer on these big holidays.” The league has also indicated that these will be the first “truly globally distributed games” in world sports. Financial considerations are also a contributing factor. ABC/ESPN reportedly pay $2.6 billion (£2.1 billion) to broadcast approximately 100 NBA games annually, which includes five Christmas matchups, equating to roughly $26 million (£21 million) per game. For the rights to broadcast two NFL games this Christmas, Netflix has reportedly paid $150 million (£118 million). Beyonce has performed at the Super Bowl half-time show on two occasions, most recently in 2016 alongside Bruno Mars and headliners Coldplay. The NFL has explored alternative broadcasts, or ‘altcasts,’ to attract younger demographics, a strategy the NBA is now adopting. This Christmas will introduce the first animated presentation of an NBA game, while the NFL describes its coverage as “a must-see cultural and global event.” Mariah Carey, who previously recorded performances of her festive hits for the NBA on Christmas Day, has done so for the NFL this year. Additionally, Beyonce is scheduled to perform a half-time show during the second game in Houston, around 22:45 GMT. There is also a possibility that Taylor Swift could attend the first game, as her partner, Travis Kelce, will be playing for the Kansas City Chiefs. This initiative represents Netflix’s latest move in its strategic shift to “tap into massive fandoms across comedy, reality TV, sports and more.” Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, further stated, “There are no live annual events – sports or otherwise – that compare with the audiences NFL football attracts.” Netflix previously ventured into live boxing with last month’s Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight, which experienced technical difficulties. Netflix reported that this fight reached a peak of 65 million concurrent streams from its 282.3 million subscribers. A significant increase in viewership is anticipated for Beyonce’s half-time performance, and the NFL is eager to see the audience numbers. Should the streaming service perform reliably, this could potentially evolve into a global tradition.