

Manchester United’s Robin van Persie scores a goal against Newcastle during their English Premier League soccer match at Old Trafford on Boxing Day. (Phil Noble/Reuters)

It’s an annual event that’s cemented itself into British culture. Just as Americans get football on Thanksgiving, Britons get their own definition of football (read: soccer) on Boxing Day, aka, the day after Christmas. This happens every year: All 20 Premier League teams participate in a game, which means it’s nonstop games pretty much all day long. (Americans who want to catch some of the action can watch three games on NBC Sports.)

The tradition of watching soccer on Boxing Day has various origin stories, ranging from the commercial (in that showing the games on a holiday that most Britons get off is a great way to score broadcast revenues) to the practical (there was nothing else to do, as unlike today, most businesses historically closed on the holiday). But one story offers a more fanciful and romantic notion abut why soccer became such a popular pastime around Christmas.

It goes like this: On Christmastime in 1914, German and British soldiers laid down their weapons for a short time to come together to — you guessed it — play a friendly game of soccer in what would become known as “The “Christmas Truce.” CNN has more:

The clearest recollection of the famous match reported to have occurred came from Ernie Williams, a former soldier in the British Army. He claimed that he had taken part in the match at Wulverghem, in Belgium, during a television interview which was recorded in 1983. “The ball appeared from somewhere, I don’t know where, but it came from their side — it wasn’t from our side that the ball came,” he said. “They made up some goals and one fellow went in goal and then it was just a general kickabout. I should think there were about a couple of hundred taking part. “I had a go at the ball. I was pretty good then, at 19. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. There was no sort of ill-will between us. There was no referee, and no score, no tally at all. “It was simply a melee — nothing like the soccer you see on television. The boots we wore were a menace — those great big boots we had on – and in those days the balls were made of leather and they soon got very soggy.”

The tale has gained such notoriety in England, that the country’s Football Association paid tribute to its 100-year anniversary of the event by setting up a match between soldiers from Great Britain and Germany. They called it the “Game of Truce.”

The British side won, but is the event the game was commemorating even true? Some historians have their doubts.

“I think it’s highly likely that someone, somewhere did bring out a ball and a bit of a kick about took place, but that is a long, long way from saying it definitely happened and that it was anything like a formal match rather than just men tapping a ball about a bit,” Mark Connelly, a history at the University of Kent, told CNN. He continued:

“There is a huge difference between a truce and fraternization and we have tended to put the two together. “Truces are very common in war and often involve both sides ignoring each other in order to carry out common tasks — often burial of dead and retrieval of wounded. “At Christmas 1914 where the truce occurred most men took part in it in this tacit manner rather than actively fraternized, which is clearly much more ‘romantic’ and appealing. “It also made not the slightest bit of difference to the wider mindset of the armies — it was clearly temporary and hostilities would obviously resuming.”

While the lore of the Christmas truce, whether it happened or not, is real, sports in general have long been associated with Boxing Day.

“Boxing Day matches go back to as far as I can remember, and sporting tradition runs deep on Dec. 26,” Joe Prince-Wright, a self-described “proud Englishman,” writes at NBC Sports’ Pro Soccer Talk. “The famous horse race, the King George VI Chase is run on Boxing Day, as well as rugby matches and the Scottish, Welsh and Irish soccer leagues in the U.K.”

Sports and the holiday have become so intertwined, he writes, that the day, which got its name because it was when upper-class families traditionally gave their servants boxed gifts to thank them for their work, is now mostly about athletics. Soccer just happens to be the most popular — and the most lucrative.

“First and foremost, [Boxing Day is] about a full slate of 10 Premier League games all taking place on the same day. That doesn’t happen often, New Years Day and the final day of the season are the only other times, so that special feeling of non-stop soccer really gets the juices flowing,” Prince-Wright said, before reiterating the commercial appeal of the holiday tradition. “The eyes of the world are on the Premier League on Boxing Day, it is the one day of the year when only games in the UK dominate global soccer coverage and bumper crowds draw in millions in revenue for the clubs on a special day for everyone involved.”

The Premier League didn’t earn over $2.3 billion during the 2013-14 season by accident. Much of that came from lucrative broadcasting deals. Specific statistics regarding the Premier League’s earnings on Boxing Day were not immediately available, but it’s safe to assume it was a happy, bountiful holiday for the league and good reason to keep the tradition of all-day soccer going.