Heading into Week 15, we are just over a week away from the holiday season. The NFL already had its annual three Thanksgiving games, but they aren’t done there. There will also be three Christmas Day games in 2023.
Let’s take a look at which teams will play games on Christmas and Christmas Eve this year. Here are the teams who’ll receive an extra holiday helping of late-season football.
NFL’s Christmas Games and Schedule
In Week 16, there will be a total of three games on Christmas Day, with the remainder being played on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday (Christmas Eve).
Las Vegas Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs
- Kickoff Time: 1 p.m. ET
- TV Channel: CBS & Nickelodeon
The Kansas City Chiefs host the Las Vegas Raiders at lunchtime with a 1 p.m. ET kickoff. Being division rivals, the two teams have faced off quite a bit in recent memory. However, Kansas City has won the last six games between the two teams and 11 of the past 12.
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The two teams matched up earlier this season in Week 12, where the Chiefs won 31-17 in Las Vegas. The Christmas game, however, will have an additional stream with some slime on Nickelodeon.
New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles
- Kickoff Time: 4:30 p.m. ET
- TV Channel: FOX
Christmas Day afternoon and evening will see the reigning NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles hosting their division rivals, the New York Giants. The Giants will be fighting for any chance at the playoffs, while the Eagles are in contention for the NFC East and overall top seed in the NFC.
This is the first of two faceoffs between the two franchises in the 2023 season. They will face off once again in Week 18 when the Eagles travel to New York.
Baltimore Ravens at San Francisco 49ers
- Kickoff Time: 8:15 p.m. ET
- TV Channel: ABC
Christmas dinner will be a matchup of the top seed in each conference. The AFC-leading Baltimore Ravens will travel to the NFC-leading San Francisco 49ers. This could be a potential Super Bowl preview.
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With Lamar Jackson as their starting quarterback, the Ravens are 19-1 against NFC opponents. In 2023 alone, they’ve gone 4-0 against the NFC, defeating the Detroit Lions, Arizona Cardinals, Seattle Seahawks, and Los Angeles Rams. Jackson’s one loss came against the New York Giants in 2022.
Why Does the NFL Play on Christmas? History and More
Originally, the NFL didn’t play games on Christmas. At first, that wasn’t deliberate. Rather, in the NFL’s early history, the regular season didn’t stretch into December and often wrapped up at the tail end of November. Consequently, Thanksgiving has a much richer football history and tradition.
Through the middle of the 20th century, regular-season football games, at the latest, tracked into mid-December. This was back when the NFL and AFL were separate entities, and at the conclusion of the regular season, the respective NFL and AFL Championship games would be scheduled for two weeks in advance.
Both the NFL and AFL preferred to avoid playing on Christmas. The NFL bumped back the championship one day if it fell on Christmas — as it did in both 1955 and 1960. The AFL, meanwhile, bumped its championship game back a full week, blocking off Christmas week entirely.
The 1971 NFL playoffs marked the first instance that multiple NFL games were played on Christmas without being rescheduled. The latter game that day — the Miami Dolphins versus the Kansas City Chiefs — would end up being the longest game in NFL history.
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That game brought added attention to the Christmas Day action in 1971, but not all of that attention was good. There were complaints directed toward the NFL that the length of the game impacted Christmas Day festivities. The NFL also came under fire for playing on a traditional and religious holiday.
As a result of the blowback, the NFL began avoiding Christmas again in the years following the 1971 playoffs, taking a number of steps to avoid scheduling games on Dec. 25. But in 1989, the NFL pushed the regular season back a week to incorporate the holiday again, and scheduled a late-night game that wouldn’t interrupt family gatherings.
That iteration of the Christmas schedule was a success, and contemporary changes to the NFL schedule have made the inclusion of Christmas unavoidable. The NFL has a bye week, as of 1990, which stretches the regular season another week, and the recent addition of a Week 18 further engulfs Christmas within the regular-season action.
Christmas and Christmas Eve games have become accepted, and even nearly a staple over the last two decades. Since 1989, 25 regular-season games have been played on Christmas. This year’s games make it 28.
The NBA is also known for its holiday games. The league began playing its Christmas games in 1947, 23 years before the AFL and NFL even merged.
How Many Games Are on Christmas and Christmas Eve?
The number of games played on Christmas ultimately depends on where Christmas falls within the week in that given year. In 2022, Christmas fell on a Sunday, and we saw three games played on the holiday. Generally, three will be the maximum, while most of the remaining NFL action is deferred to Christmas Eve.
The NFL won’t force Christmas games upon the league’s players if Christmas doesn’t line up with the schedule, however. There were no NFL games on Christmas Day from 2012 to 2015 and through 2018 and 2019.
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Ultimately, the number of Christmas games fluctuates based on the placement of Christmas Day itself. If it takes place on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday, there will likely be no Christmas games. Thursday, Saturday, and Monday open the door for one or two Christmas contests, while Sunday carries the most weight.
Nevertheless, the majority of games scheduled for the week of Christmas will not take place on the holiday itself. They’ll instead be deferred to Christmas Eve or to the day after Christmas — again based on the placement of the day within the week.
For 2023, everything landed conveniently. Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday, while Christmas falls on a Monday. With this being the case, the NFL was able to schedule most of its games on Sunday.
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