Boxing Day 2026

What is Boxing Day?

Boxing Day 2026 is on Saturday 26 December 2026. Boxing Day is always 26 December, the day after Christmas Day, and because it falls at a weekend in 2026 the bank holiday moves to Monday 28 December.

Boxing Day is a public holiday across the whole of the United Kingdom, listed by the UK government’s bank holiday calendar for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It follows straight on from Christmas Day and, for most people, it is the quiet second day of the festive break: leftovers, a long walk, the football results and, increasingly, the start of the winter sales.

Boxing Day is the British name for 26 December. In the Christian calendar it is the feast of St Stephen, the first martyr, which is why it is still called St Stephen’s Day in Ireland and in much of Europe. In the UK the day has long had a secular, practical character. It was traditionally the day that household staff, tradespeople and the poor received a Christmas box, and today it is a day for sport, shopping and seeing the family you did not see on Christmas Day.

The date never moves. Unlike Easter or the May bank holidays, Boxing Day is fixed on 26 December every year, so the only thing that changes is the day of the week it lands on and, when that is a Saturday or Sunday, which weekday is given off in lieu.

Is Boxing Day a bank holiday?

Yes. Boxing Day is a bank holiday in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The legal basis is the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971, which for England, Wales and Northern Ireland names “26th December, if it be not a Sunday” and “27th December in a year in which 25th or 26th December is a Sunday”. In Scotland, 26 December is not written into the Act’s schedule in the same way; it is declared a bank holiday each year by Royal Proclamation, and gov.uk lists it for Scotland alongside the rest of the UK.

The rule that matters to most people is the one for weekends. As gov.uk puts it, if a bank holiday is on a weekend, a substitute weekday becomes a bank holiday, normally the following Monday. Because Christmas Day and Boxing Day come as a pair, the substitutes work like this:

• 2026: Christmas Day is Friday 25 December and Boxing Day is Saturday 26 December. The Boxing Day bank holiday is observed on Monday 28 December.
• 2027: Christmas Day is a Saturday and Boxing Day a Sunday. The substitute days are Monday 27 December (for Christmas Day) and Tuesday 28 December (for Boxing Day).
• 2028: Boxing Day is a Tuesday, so no substitute is needed.

There is no automatic right to a day off on a bank holiday; whether you get the Saturday, the substitute Monday or neither depends on your employment contract.

Where the name comes from

Nobody can point to a single origin for the name, but the common thread is the Christmas box. For centuries churches kept an alms box for donations through Advent and opened it on or around St Stephen’s Day to distribute the contents to the poor. By the 17th century the term “Christmas box” also meant a gift of money to apprentices, servants and tradespeople who had served a household through the year. Because staff worked on Christmas Day itself, their day off and their box came the day after.

The Victorians fixed the modern shape of the day. Postmen, errand boys, dustmen and delivery drivers would call on their rounds for a Christmas box, and families would set aside the 26th for visiting. The Oxford English Dictionary’s earliest printed record of the phrase “Boxing Day” dates from the 1830s, and the day became an official bank holiday in England and Wales in 1871, in the first Bank Holidays Act.

Boxing Day football and racing

Sport is as much a part of Boxing Day as the leftovers. The Premier League has confirmed seven matches on Saturday 26 December 2026, a return to the traditional full programme after only one top-flight game was played on Boxing Day in 2025. Aston Villa host Leeds in the 12.30pm kick-off, four games kick off at 3pm (Everton v Sunderland, Fulham v Brighton, Ipswich v Brentford and Spurs v AFC Bournemouth), Hull play Liverpool at 5.30pm and Newcastle meet Manchester City at 8pm. The remaining three fixtures of the round are on Sunday 27 December. The EFL and Scottish leagues traditionally play full Boxing Day programmes too.

Horse racing’s Boxing Day centrepiece is the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park, a Grade 1 steeplechase over three miles that is the mid-season highlight for the best staying chasers. The Jockey Club has the 2026 meeting on Saturday 26 December, with gates opening at 10.30am and the first race at 12.45pm. Several other courses usually race the same day.

Boxing Day sales

Boxing Day is one of the biggest shopping days of the British year, the start of the post-Christmas sales that run into the January sales. In practice the discounts now begin online on Christmas Day evening, with stores opening from early on the 26th; some retailers deliberately stay closed on Boxing Day to give staff a second day off, so it is worth checking opening hours before setting out.

If you compare it with Black Friday, the difference is clearance versus promotion: Black Friday offers are mostly on current lines, while Boxing Day is when shops clear what is left after Christmas.

Other ways to spend Boxing Day

• A Boxing Day walk. The traditional stretch of the legs after Christmas is now a national habit, and the Ramblers’ Festival of Winter Walks runs through the festive fortnight if you want a led group.
• Leftovers. Bubble and squeak, turkey curry and cold cuts with pickles: Boxing Day lunch is meant to be a cold buffet.
• A dip in the sea. Boxing Day swims are held at beaches and lidos around the coast, many raising money for local charities and lifeboat stations; check the organiser’s safety guidance and never swim alone.
• Charity. The oldest meaning of the day survives in Boxing Day collections, foodbank drives and volunteering at shelters.
• Panto and the cinema. Many theatres run two Boxing Day performances and cinemas are reliably busy.

Boxing Day around the world

Boxing Day is a public holiday in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and several other Commonwealth countries, where the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne is as traditional as the football is here. Ireland and most of Europe keep 26 December as St Stephen’s Day. In the United States it is an ordinary working day and the name is not widely used.

Related days

• Christmas Day, Friday 25 December 2026
• New Year’s Day, Friday 1 January 2027, the last bank holiday of the festive period
• Christmas Jumper Day, Save the Children’s December fundraiser
• Black Friday and the January sales, the sales either side of Boxing Day