Games On Christmas Day – The Celtic Wiki

Details

Ref: Celtic games on Xmas Day / Christmas Day
Last match: Celtic 3-2 Hearts on 25 Dec 1971

Yuletide goals!

The idea of leaving the presents, turkey and in-laws on Christmas Day for a trip to Celtic Park is now an alien, if tempting, concept for a generation of Celtic fans.

The closest supporters will now get to seeing the Hoops in festive action these days on the big day is if someone challenges them to a game of FIFA on the Xbox.

The ghost of Christmases past however shows that this has not always been the case. Although never an integral part of the fixture calendar like the New Year’s Day game, matches on December 25th were an infrequent but hugely popular feature of the Scottish game for more than 70 years.

Between 1893 and 1971, Celtic played 25 times on Christmas day (as well as one abandoned game) – and on most occasions the opposition came bearing gifts.

Indeed, the Hoops’ record for this festive fixture makes remarkable reading.

Out of those 25, sixteen were competitive games, with the Bhoys winning 13 of these matches.

Celtic have netted an incredible 71 goals on Christmas Day, an average of just short of 3 a match. In contrast, the Hoops’ defence has conceded only 39.

The first Celtic game on Xmas day was actually in Celtic’s inaugural year when the Celtic Strollers (reserves) played Airdrie St Margaret away on 25 Dec 1888 in a 2-1 defeat, in which William Naughton so impressed for the opposition in having “a demon game” on the day that he was to soon sign for Celtic.

Some might be a bit surprised now by the fact that matches were played on Christmas day but in truth Christmas Day as a day of celebration is really quite a recent phenomenon in Scotland. Up to around the 1970s, Christmas day wasn’t celebrated but rather Hogmanay was the big day. People used to even work on Christmas day in Scotland (it was not a public holiday back then). Celebrating Christmas was seen as too Catholic for the more austere Presbyterian establishment. Commercialism is really what forced the change.

The inaugural Christmas day match, the 1-1 draw with Clyde in 1893, is significant as it the club’s first attempt to host an illuminated match. The Christmas clash drew a crowd of 5,000 spectators due to the novelty of a football match taking place under the aid of electric light. Football had been played under artificial lights in Scotland before, particularly at the Edinburgh Exhibitions, but this was the first match of the kind in a club owned stadium such as Celtic Park.

Some 16 arch lights were suspended above the pitch on wires, which were fixed to a dozen, 50 feet high, wooden posts. Meanwhile, almost 100 gas-jets provided additional illumination along the covered enclosure. Apart from the obvious eyesore of multiple wires hanging across the pitch, the cables also tended to sag too low and interfere with lofted passes.

Celtic’s first Christmas day outing came in a competitive fixture came in 1894 when they traveled to Liverpool, facing off against Everton. Sadly, the hosts were not too welcoming and beat the Bhoys 3-0.

Celtic’s biggest win on this was a 9-1 thrashing of Clyde in 1897. Another notable victory came on 25th December 1915 when Airdrieonians were hammered 6-0 at Parkhead.

Kilmarnock were the Christmas day visitors to Celtic Park in 1937 when the Bhoys showed little festive spirit by dishing out an 8-0 drubbing of the Ayrshire team. Under normal circumstances such a result would have had the entire Celtic support in raptures.

But this game marked the return to Parkhead of legendary Celt Jimmy McGrory who was making his debut as manager of Kilmarnock and who had received a thunderous reception from the home fans as he took his seat in the stand. As such there was much discomfort among the Celtic followers as McGrory’s side were humiliated.

Celtic had led the Rugby Park club 6-0 at half-time and with his side chasing the league title Willie Maley instructed his players to show no remorse to their opponents or McGrory. For some Celtic fans though this public humiliation of an idol they still worshipped was totally unacceptable.

While McGrory had no qualms at all about Celtic’s attitude some supporters were less understanding. Their feelings were summed up in a letter sent to McGrory from Dublin priest Father Coleman in the wake of the game. The religious man denounced what he viewed as Celtic’s ugly attitude to the match and he wrote the performance was:

“…a very ungallant, uncalled for, even dastardly act of the so-called Bhoys”.

There was no such sympathy on display on Christmas day 1965 when a Joe McBride hat-trick had helped put Celtic 7-0 up at half-time against Morton. With the Parkhead faithful licking their lips in anticipation of a record victory Jock Stein’s men, perhaps mindful of a busy holiday schedule, took their foot off the gas and the support had to eventually content themselves with an 8-1 triumph.

It was in hindsight a wise decision as 10 days later Celtic had plenty left in the tank as they destroyed Rangers 5-1.

In England the full Christmas Day fixture programme was abandoned in the 1950s but north of the border occasional games would continue to be played on December 25th right up until the mid 1970s.

The last full programme of Christmas day fixtures in Scotland was held in 1971, and it was on that date that Celtic bowed out of Christmas action. They did so with another victory, this time a 3-2 win over Hearts (pictured above) which was watched by a crowd of 34,000.

More than five decades on from that game all talk of seeing the Celts in action on Christmas Day is now confined to the history books. However given Celtic’s amazing record in these fixtures perhaps the Celtic support should be hoping for the return of a green and white Christmas!

Celtic’s Full Christmas Day Record

Articles

Christmas Day through the years for Celtic

Games On Christmas Day

By Lisbon Lion Jim Craig

Share
25 Dec 2023, 1:00 pm

Between its foundation in 1887 and 1971, Celtic played 20 times on Christmas Day, including friendlies and league matches, some of which were high scoring and others rather disappointing.

The first came in the year following the club’s birth – 1888 – when a Celtic side comprised of both first team and reserve players travelled into Lanarkshire to face Airdrie St Margaret in a friendly. It was not an audacious start, the new club losing 2-1.

Five years later, in 1893, a most important friendly took place at Celtic Park on Christmas Day.

By that time, football had already been played in Scotland under lights, mainly in the Edinburgh Exhibitions, but this contest, against Clyde, was the first floodlight match in a club-owned stadium. Sixteen arc lights were suspended above the pitch on wires, which were attached to a dozen 50-feet high wooden posts. Along the enclosure, 100 gas-jets provided additional illumination.

A crowd of around 5,000 turned to see this unusual event which ended in a 1-1 draw. The spectators liked the atmosphere but could not help but notice that as the game went on, the wires began to sag a bit and sometimes impeded the flight of a high ball.

Still, it was a first of its kind and everyone connected to the club – players, management, directors and fans – were very pleased to have been involved in such a venture.

Two years later, a Celtic party travelled down to Lancashire to face Bury in another friendly. The club known as The Shakers was looking good for promotion from the Second Division that season but on Christmas Day 1895, they found Celtic in fine form at Gigg Lane and the visitors went home that night with a 3-0 win to their credit.

Eleven years later, a Celtic party again made a journey into England for a match on Christmas Day. It occurred in 1906, this time to face Woolwich Arsenal in London. And again, the team now known as the Hoops came away with a win on English soil, this time by 2-0.

Friendlies like the ones mentioned above are all well, good and often entertaining but it is the competitive encounters that the fans really want to see and most of the 20 matches that Celtic were involved in have been in that category ;-

1897: Clyde 1-9 Celtic
1909: Kilmarnock 0-1 Celtic
1915: Celtic 6-0 Airdrie
1920: St Mirren 0-2 Celtic
1924: Kilmarnock 0-4 Celtic
1933: Queen’s Park 2-3 Celtic
1934: Celtic 4-1 Queen’s Park
1937: Kilmarnock 0-8 Celtic
1943: Hamilton 3-4 Celtic
1946: Celtic 1-0 Queen’s Park
1947: Celtic 4-2 Hearts
1948: Celtic 2-0 Aberdeen
1954: Celtic 2-2 Clyde
1957: Celtic 1-2 Queen of the South
1965: Celtic 8-1 Morton
1971: Celtic 3-2 Hearts

I was involved in that match against Morton. My first-team debut had come against Go-Ahead Deventer of Holland in a First Round second leg tie in the Cup-Winners’ Cup on October 7, 1965 and since then I had played three league matches and another European tie against Aarhus of Denmark.

The team which took to the field against Morton on Christmas Day 1965 was: Simpson, Craig, Gemmell, Murdoch, Cushley, Clark, Johnstone, Gallagher, McBride, Chalmers, Hughes and it was an important fixture, as Celtic and Rangers were jostling neck-and-neck for top spot in the First Division.

It was clearly an important match for me, another chance to make a permanent claim for the right-back spot in the first team. The Boss, Jock Stein, had announced the team at training on Christmas Eve, so I made sure that I had a calm and easy afternoon and evening.

I even passed up on my normal attendance at Midnight Mass, worrying that people might see my presence at such a late occasion as a sign that I wasn’t taking the following day’s match seriously enough.

Instead, I went to first Mass on Christmas Day, only to find that I had made a serious mistake. The church was packed, with Celtic fans everywhere in the colours and afterwards they were not slow in coming up to me and reminding me what they were expecting from the team that afternoon.

Morton were at the wrong end of the table – and it was Christmas Day – so I was not surprised when I arrived at Celtic Park to see that there was not a particularly large crowd outside the ground.

It had not improved by kick-off and the attendance was later given as 21,000. However, the Celtic supporting contingent, making up the vast majority of those present, certainly got their money’s worth that afternoon.

Right from the first whistle, we controlled the play, seldom allowing Morton into the action. Joe McBride opened the scoring in seven minutes, Stevie Chalmers got the second in 11 minutes, McBride again in 25, John Hughes in 28 with McBride notching his hat-trick in 33 minutes. Bobby Murdoch got his name on the score-sheet in 35 minutes and Chalmers got his second two minutes before the interval, making the half-time score 7-0.

Rather surprisingly, the men from Greenock opened the second half by pulling one back through outside-left Watson in 49 minutes.

However, I can still recall that we all possibly did take our feet off the pedals in our own display not by design but players in that comfortable position realise that the game is won and a natural sympathy for the opposition – whom we knew well – also comes into play. There was only one more goal, through John Hughes in 80 minutes, making the final score Celtic 8-1 Morton.

After the match, I shot off as quick as possible as my maternal grandmother was hosting her annual Christmas Dinner for the family.

My Mum and Dad, my brother, various Aunts, Uncles and Cousins were all present and seemed pleased to hear about the result and my story of the game. It had indeed been a memorable afternoon. The result put us top of the league table on goal difference, while we had also played one game fewer than our city rivals.

The next match for both teams was the New Year derby encounter, this time on January 3, 1966 when 65,000 were present at Celtic Park and I made my Glasgow derby debut.

To say I was nervous beforehand was putting it mildly and my tension increased when Rangers opened the scoring in 90 seconds, a lead they kept till the interval.

However, matters were different after the break. We raised our game, took control of the play and the goals arrived. Three from Stevie Chalmers (49,62, 90), with the others coming from Charlie Gallagher (68) and Bobby Murdoch (79), made the final score Celtic 5-1 Rangers.

To say it had been a successful festive period for both me and the club is something of an understatement. That last result put Celtic on their own at the top of the table.

However, as one late England star used to say ‘football can be a funny old game’ and there were certainly some unusual, if not baffling, moments to come for the Hoops and their fans later in January and February.