Christmas

===Sport===
Christmas during the Middle Ages was a public festival with annual indulgences included the sporting.<ref name="ADS"/> When Puritans outlawed Christmas in England in December 1647 the crowd brought out footballs as a symbol of festive misrule.<ref name="auto"/> The Orkney [[Christmas Day Ba']] tradition continues.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.orkney.com/events/christmas-day-ba|title=Christmas Day Ba' 2023|website=Orkney.com}}</ref> In the [[Football League|former top tier of English football]], home and away Christmas Day and Boxing Day double headers were often played guaranteeing football clubs large crowds by allowing many working people their only chance to watch a game.<ref name=bbcbs>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z4y847h|title=Why football at Christmas is a very British tradition|website=BBC Bitesize}}</ref> Champions [[Preston North End]] faced [[Aston Villa]] [[1889-90 Football League|on Christmas Day 1889]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.90min.com/posts/the-last-time-football-was-played-christmas-day-england|title=The Last Time Football Was Played on Christmas Day in England|date=December 25, 2020|website=90min.com}}</ref> and the last December 25 fixture was in [[1965-66 in English football|1965 in England]], [[1965-66 Blackpool F.C.|Blackpool]] beating Blackburn Rovers 4–2.<ref name=bbcbs/> One of the most memorable images of the [[Christmas truce]] during World War I was the games of football played between the opposing sides on Christmas Day 1914.<ref>John Woodcock (November 17, 2013). [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/10455611/England-v-Germany-when-rivals-staged-beautiful-game-on-the-Somme.html "England v Germany: when rivals staged beautiful game on the Somme"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200612113529/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/10455611/England-v-Germany-when-rivals-staged-beautiful-game-on-the-Somme.html |date=June 12, 2020 }}, ''The Daily Telegraph''.</ref>

More recently, in the United States, both [[NFL American football|NFL]] and [[NBA basketball|NBA]] have held fixtures on Christmas Day.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-42239033|title=The sports games that don't stop for Christmas Day|date=December 22, 2017|via=www.bbc.co.uk}}</ref>