Football on Christmas Day was once as much of a festive tradition as turkey, crackers and mince pies.
The Boxing Day postponement of the club's match with Millwall makes for an eerily quiet start to the Christmas progamme this season, and the squad will get some time to relax on Christmas Day, which didn’t used to be the case.
In 1923/24 – the club’s first season in the Football League – the Cherries hosted Brentford on Christmas Day before visiting the Bees on Boxing Day.
Nowadays, Christmas Day is a football-free zone and has been for Cherries supporters since the late 1950s when the club joined Division Three following a reorganisation of the bottom two tiers.
In the early years, Christmas Day was a rare public holiday and football was one of the few entertainments available so it made sense to stage fixtures on December 25th.
Families would don their new hats and scarves and swap the settee for a place on the terraces, often braving the elements to watch their favourite team in action.
There would be a full programme of fixtures on Christmas Day and another full programme on Boxing Day or the day after.
While the busy festive fixture list proved lucrative for clubs, it wasn’t so popular with players, many of whom were unable to resist seasonal excesses. Some clubs even provided their players with booze as a Christmas treat.
A feature published in FourFourTwo in 2018 recounted a festive double-header between the Cherries and Clapton Orient in 1931/32.
It read: “Clapton Orient striker Ted Crawford, later a popular manager and raconteur, recalled his entire team turning up drunk for a Christmas Day match against Bournemouth in 1931 courtesy of a barrel of beer provided by their manager.
“Crawford was unable to see straight and ended up collapsing on the pitch in a sozzled heap. Clapton (now Leyton) Orient lost 2-1 but sobered up sufficiently to win the Boxing Day return 1-0.”
The article also made mention of Everton playing two matches on Christmas Day and another on Boxing Day in 1888.
All three matches took place at Everton’s pre-Goodison home – Anfield. On Christmas morning they played a Lancashire Cup tie against Blackburn Park Road, coming from behind to win 3-2.
Then, in the afternoon, they played an annual exhibition match against Ulster FC, winning 3-0, with goalkeeper Charles Jolliffe scoring the third goal to the great amusement of the 2,000 spectators – a large crowd for the time.
The Boxing Day match against Bootle was less amusing, being played in a shower of hailstones and ending as a goalless draw.
The first Football League match to be played on Christmas Day was Preston North End versus Aston Villa in 1889.
Preston’s ‘Invincibles’ were the reigning league champions, but Villa had won the previous meeting between England’s top two.
It was a real Christmas cracker and 9,000 spectators postponed their turkey dinners to see it, making it one of the highest-attended games the fledgling league had seen.
As the Football League expanded, clubs began to travel longer distances for Christmas Day matches. There was no public transport shutdown, so fans and players could take trains and buses for festive away trips.
After joining Division Three (South) in 1923, the Cherries’ first two Christmas Day matches saw them lose 4-2 against Brentford and draw 0-0 with Newport County.
The 1925/26 festive campaign threw up a very eventful double-header for the Cherries with goals from Jack Hayward and Len Butt (pictured above) earning them a 2-0 win over Bristol Rovers on Christmas Day.
However, just a day later, Ron Eyre’s brace proved in vain as Rovers trounced the Cherries 7-2 with Leslie Knighton’s troops heading back to Dean Court with their tails firmly between their legs.
The following season, Eyre, the club’s all-time record goalscorer, enjoyed a mid-season purple patch, netting ten times in seven games between November 20th and January 15th.
His run included three goals in two festive fixtures against Newport County on December 25th and 27th with the Cherries losing 2-1 in south Wales and triumphing 2-1 at Dean Court.
Although the Cherries had a rare rest day on Christmas Day in 1927, they needed it after playing three games in the space of 96 hours.
Defeat at QPR on Christmas Eve was followed by a 3-1 win over Brighton on Boxing Day and a 3-2 reverse at the hands of the Seagulls on December 27th.
Christmas Day football continued during the Second World War and the Cherries were involved as fixtures in 1940 delivered a hatful of goals.
A number of guest players were on the scoresheet as the Cherries ran up an emphatic 7-1 victory over Bristol City with the 40 wartime league matches played providing 210 goals.
On the same day, Norwich hosted a Brighton team which arrived with only five players – one senior, three juniors and a loanee – and cobbled together an XI using volunteers from the crowd. Norwich won 18-0.
Following the war, the Cherries’ biggest festive win came on Boxing Day 1946 when doubles from Ernie Tagg, Jack McDonald and Fred Rowell saw them run out 7-1 winners against Norwich at Carrow Road.
In their final Christmas Day fixture during their last season in Division Three (South), the Cherries chalked up a 4-1 win over Reading at Dean Court with Dickie Dowsett (pictured above) scoring twice and Brian Loughnane and Brian Bedford once.
