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This year the Christmas holidays fit together particularly well to allow those who can afford it to spend a lot of time resting: in fact there is a “long weekend” from 25th to 28th December, and in January only the 2nd and 5th are working. Among many things, for those who want it there will be the opportunity to watch a bit of sport, at least on television. There’s something interesting happening almost every day, with some events – such as the Africa Cup of Football and the Darts World Cup – running throughout the holidays. Here are some tips, day by day.
Thursday 25 December
Traditionally, many championships and competitions stop on Christmas Day in Europe, while in the United States several notable basketball and American football games are played. The NBA practically offers a basketball marathon, with 5 games one after the other from 6pm (New York Knicks vs. Cleveland Cavaliers) until 4.30am (start time of Denver Nuggets-Minnesota Timberwolves). They can be seen on SKY Sport and NOW TV (Prime Video will broadcast some matches during the holidays, but none of the Christmas ones). There are also three NFL games being played, two of which will be broadcast on Netflix: Dallas Cowboys-Washington Commanders at 7.30pm and Detroit Lions-Minnesota Vikings at 10.30pm.
Friday 26 December
It will be one of the few December 26th almost without the Boxing Dayan old English tradition where all league matches are played on that day. This year however, also due to the weekend immediately following, only the match (however interesting) between Manchester United and Newcastle will be played at 9pm. Instead there will be a sort of Boxing Day of Italian volleyball, given that all 6 matches of the men’s championship and 6 out of 7 of the women’s championship will be played. The holidays are also the key period for cyclocross races (cycling on cross-country trails and sometimes on snow) and it is no coincidence that the period between Christmas and New Year is defined by enthusiasts as “holy week”, in which races take place in Flanders: on the 26th there will be the first of an almost daily series of races.
Saturday 27 December
The seventh match of the women’s Serie A volleyball is also the most awaited one, and will be played on December 27th at 6pm between Milan and Conegliano, that is, the two teams protagonists of the main rivalry of recent years (a rivalry very unbalanced in favor of Conegliano, even if this year Milan managed to beat it in the Italian Super Cup). First, on Saturday morning, there will be the Alpine Skiing World Cup races, which will also continue on Sunday: at 10am the women’s giant slalom in Semmering, Austria, and at 11.30am the men’s super G in Livigno. At 3.30pm Benetton Treviso and Zebre di Parma will face each other in the Italian derby of the United Rugby Championship (see it on SKY and Now).
Sunday 28 December
The men’s Serie A football team will not play at Christmas but will not go on break during the holidays: the seventeenth matchday will be held this weekend. Milan and Inter will play on Sunday, respectively at 12.30pm against Verona and at 8.45pm against Atalanta. There are also the men’s and women’s Serie A basketball games: the most important match will be the 4 pm match between Brescia and Venice, currently first and third in the standings. For those who love tennis but also a bit of the spectacle that is independent of tennis (and which is why many don’t like it) at 5pm (Italian time) the new battle of the sexes will be played in Dubai, a match between the number 1 tennis player in the world ranking Aryna Sabalenka and the Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios, Wimbledon finalist in 2022 and number 13 in the world in 2016, now close to retiring. We will see clearly on Supertennis.
Monday 29th, Tuesday 30th and Wednesday 31st December
Once the weekend is over, one of the most peculiar and fascinating competitions in winter sports begins: the Four Hills Tournament, which consists of four ski jumping competitions. It is held between Germany and Austria, this year it will end on January 5 and will be broadcast by Eurosport. Between 29 December and 5 January the bobsleigh World Cup stops in Germany, in the country that has dominated this sport for decades: another opportunity to start following one of the protagonist sports at the next Milan Cortina Olympics (also on Eurosport). In the meantime, the African Cup of Football will continue, and between the 29th and 31st the third and decisive day of the group games will be played. The Spengler Cup, an international hockey tournament held every year between 26 and 31 December, ends on December 31st: it can be streamed on the official YouTube channel of the tournament.
Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd January
And here we are in 2026. On January 1st at 9pm Sunderland-Manchester City and Brentford-Tottenham will close the last first leg of the Premier League. On January 2nd at 8.45pm the Cagliari-Milan match opens the eighteenth matchday of Serie A. Meanwhile, the World Darts Championship will have entered the decisive phase: quarter-finals and semi-finals will be played between January 1st and 2nd.
Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th January
In the evening there is the final of the World Darts Championship, which is broadcast by DAZN in Italy. At 8.45pm there is also Atalanta-Roma, a significant match because it will be the first time that coach Gian Piero Gasperini (now at Roma) will return to Bergamo as an opponent, after having coached Atalanta for 9, unrepeatable years. On Sunday there are two other rather important Serie A matches (Lazio-Napoli at 12.30pm and Inter-Bologna at 8.45pm), while at 6.30pm in the Premier League there is Manchester City-Chelsea and at 8.45pm in Ligue 1 the first Paris derby in thirty-five years. There is no alpine skiing but January 3rd and 4th are the last two days of the cross-country skiing Tour de Ski (a sort of important cup within the World Cup), which this year is held in Italy between Dobbiaco and Val di Fiemme. The men’s basketball championship and the men’s and women’s volleyball championships are played again.
The cross-country skier Federico Pellegrino, one of the four Italian standard-bearers at the next Olympics (Federico Modica/NordicFocus/Getty Images)
Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th January
These are the last two days of the holidays and also the ones in which the women’s Italian basketball cup is awarded in Tortona, because they play semi-finals and final (the quarter-finals are on January 4th). It will be broadcast free-to-air on Rai Sport. Another day of Serie A begins on January 6th, the third of the holidays, which will end on the 8th (it’s a midweek round): Sassuolo-Juventus is at 8.45pm. In the Africa Cup of Nations, which ends on January 18, there will be the last round of 16.
