Looking back at every NFL Christmas Day game

The first time the NFL played on Christmas, it was sheer happenstance. The NFL and AFL had merged, and now, the playoffs were beginning in late December. In 1971, the NFL playoffs began on Christmas Day with two games. The Cowboys visited the Vikings, but the road team emerged with a 20-12 win.

How do you follow up the NFL’s first Christmas game? Well, how about with some history? The Chiefs and Dolphins outshined the Cowboys and Vikings on Christmas. Miami won 27-24, but did so in double overtime. This is the longest NFL game in history.

Obviously, playoff games aren’t happening on Christmas any longer. It took a while until a regular-season game occurred on Christmas. The NFL dipped its toe into the pool in 1989. It happened this year because Monday Night Football happened to be scheduled for December 25. The Vikings beat the Bengals 29-21.

This time around, the NFL scheduled a game for a Christmas that fell on a Saturday. It was a good matchup, as the 49ers and Oilers both ended up as division winners. This wasn’t the most riveting game for casual fans at home watching. The Oilers scored a 10-7 win.

In 1994, Christmas fell on a Sunday during the regular season for the first time in NFL history. The league did not go all-in on the holiday. Instead, the NFL decided to establish a practice it has kept going, more or less. Most of the games were moved to Saturday, aka Christmas Eve, but Sunday Night Football still took place on Christmas. Miami scored the home win 27-20.

Well, if you know how the calendar works, Christmas falling on a Sunday in 1994 meant it fell on a Monday in 1995. That meant another Monday Night Football on X-Mas. Also, remember when Monday Night Football started at 9 p.m. ET? Yeesh! Dallas won in a walk, beating the Cardinals 37-13.

This was a case of the NFL truly taking a shot at a Christmas Day game, as in 1999 it fell on a Saturday. In 1999, the NFL had also moved the start of the season back a week because, yes, they did not want to start the playoffs on January 1, 2000, what with the Y2K of it all. This was before the Lions hit their fallow period, but the team lost to a post-John Elway Broncos team 17-7.

Apparently, the Lions and Cowboys weren’t content with just having Thanksgiving on the schedule. The Houston Oilers were now the Tennessee Titans, and they were decidedly better than the Cowboys in 2000. They actually closed out their regular season with a 31-0 win on Monday Night Football to finish 13-3.

Here is the starting point of the NFL, giving it a go on Christmas. For the first time since 1971, multiple games took place on Christmas. The first half of this Saturday doubleheader was a classic rivalry and quite the game as well. Kansas City squeaked out a 31-30 win in a, dare we say, Christmas Classic.

The evening game on Christmas in 2004 was not as riveting. First, the Titans and Broncos aren’t exactly heated rivals. Second, the game was not nearly as close. Denver took home a road win by a 37-16 margin, a real lump of coal for Titans fans.

Getting a matchup like this on Christmas was great for the NFL, on paper, but in 2005 the Bears were quite good while the Packers very much were not. Fortunately for the fans that braved Lambeau Field in late December, the Packers at least played the Bears tough, though they still lost 24-17.

The NFC North was well-represented in 2005. This was a big game for fans of field goals, as the Vikings and Ravens combined to kick six field goals. Baltimore trailed going into the fourth quarter, but came back for the 30-23 win.

You know the NFL was trying to give Christmas a shot, because in 2006, the holiday fell on a Monday, but the league scheduled two games. Two divisional games, at that. Of course, the Cowboys did what the Cowboys always do, at least if you ask their fans. The Eagles came into town and won 23-7.

Fans from cold-weather cities got a chance to justify trips to warmer cities in 2006. Both fan bases also got a chance to get a late Christmas present. The Jets, like the Eagles, scored a road win over a rival, but this was a close one. New York won 13-10.

The NFL didn’t think it could justify a mid-week NFL game just to play on Christmas, but the league did stretch to make it happen in 2009…sort of. The Chargers and Titans played on a Friday, of all things. However, this was an NFL Network game. Remember those days? Fans who didn’t have the NFL Network probably didn’t feel too disappointed. San Diego ended up winning in a 42-17 blowout.

The next year, the NFL Network showcased a Christmas Day game again. This time, fans who didn’t have the channel probably felt like they missed out. Sure, these were two 5-10 teams, but the Cardinals ended up winning 27-26 thanks to a last-second 48-yard field goal from Jay Feely that came after a missed extra point on the touchdown that gave the Cowboys the 26-24 lead.

You know, maybe it makes sense for the NFL to steer into Christmas at Lambeau Field. Packers fans take pride in braving cold weather, and cheeseheads and Santa hats can coexist. In a rematch of the prior season’s NFC Championship game, the Packers earned a home win by a score of 35-21.

By 2016, the Ravens had been around long enough for Steelers-Ravens to be a top-notch NFL rivalry. This was an NFL Network game you definitely wanted to have access to watching, at least by the fourth quarter. In that quarter, the Steelers outscored the Ravens 21-10 to win the game 31-27. Two touchdowns came in the last 90 seconds. This is possibly, even probably, the best Christmas Day game to date.

The Chiefs and Broncos would have been hard-pressed to match the quality of that Steelers-Ravens game from earlier in the day. Well, they didn’t even try. There’s not much to say about Kansas City’s breezy 33-10 win at home, other than the fact it ended with defensive tackle Dontari Poe throwing a touchdown pass.

Hey, this time around the Steelers and Texans played on NFL Network AND NBC. Of course, the extra audience did not exactly get a great watch. The Steelers were one of the best teams in the NFL, and the Texans were not. That played out on Christmas, with Pittsburgh winning 34-6.

Eagles-Raiders was not much better for football fans. Philadelphia won 19-10 in a low-scoring affair. Perhaps owing to the lackluster nature of these games, there were no Christmas games the next two seasons. Those mark, to date, the last years wherein the NFL did not play on Christmas.

And 2020 is the last year there was only a single NFL game on Christmas. This was a decent game. It was high scoring, but not competitive. The Saints were only up 31-27 going into the fourth quarter, but by the end of the game, they had emerged with a 52-33 win.

Lambeau Field and Christmas go hand-in-hand! Three times makes a trend! This late-afternoon game on a Saturday was a good one, as the Packers won 24-22 over the Browns, moving the Packers to a 12-3 record on the season.

The Colts make a Christmas appearance, though it was on the last Christmas Day game that aired exclusively on NFL Network. Both teams had winning records, and the game proved competitive, even though one of the teams was quarterbacked by Carson Wentz. In fact, Wentz led the Colts to a 22-16 victory.

Instead of making the Dolphins come play up in Wisconsin, the NFL allowed the Packers to get some Miami sun in December. This was the first of three – yes, three – games on Christmas in 2022. It was a good game between two mediocre teams. Green Bay and Miami were tied 20-20 going into the fourth, where two Mason Crosby field goals yielded a 26-20 win.

This was a Christmas game that was simulcast on Nickelodeon, with all the bells and whistles (and slime) that means. Hopefully, you caught this game on Nickelodeon, because it was about the only way to make it worth watching all the way through. The Rams won a 51-14 laugher.

Tom Brady played in this game, but that’s about as notable as it gets. This was a close game, an overtime game at that, but it was also pretty bland. There were seven field goals kicked in this game, which the Buccaneers won 19-16.

This was another Christmas Day tripleheader. Also, this time around, the day opened with the Nickelodeon simulcast. Whether you watched on Nick or CBS, you got a better game than in 2022. The Raiders pulled off a big 20-14 upset win against the Chiefs. Notably, this would be the last game the Chiefs lost until the Bills bested them in the middle of the 2024 season.

It’s a little surprising that the Giants didn’t play on Christmas until 2023. Maybe it’s because the Knicks play on Christmas basically every year. New York’s viewership would be split! The Giants were surprisingly good in 2022, so they got to play their rivals, the Eagles, on Christmas in 2023. That 2022 campaign proved fluky, but the Giants did play the Eagles well, even if they lost 33-25.

On Christmas evening, Lamar Jackson threw two touchdowns and ran for 45 yards. Brock Purdy threw four interceptions. The Ravens won 33-19. With that, Jackson secured his second MVP, and Purdy fell out of the MVP race.

The Chiefs and Steelers made history in 2024 by playing the first NFL game on Netflix. Yes, the streaming giant has now staked out a piece of not only the NFL schedule, but of the Christmas schedule. Kansas City, the defending champs, handled Russell Wilson and the Steelers 29-10. It was a step on the road to the Chiefs finishing the regular season 15-1.

The second-ever Christmas game on Netflix was, um, not terribly exciting. Ravens fans probably didn't mind, and Lamar Jackson did rush for a 48-yard touchdown. However, Baltimore won 31-2, and there wasn't a single point scored in the fourth quarter.