NFL Makes Christmas Day Tripleheader Permanent

By Sean Davis

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has officially announced that the league will schedule three games every Christmas Day, making the tripleheader an annual tradition regardless of which day of the week the holiday falls on.

This move follows the league’s recent success with holiday games. Last Christmas, Steelers-Chiefs and Ravens-Texans averaged 24.1 million and 24.3 million viewers on Netflix, making them the most-streamed NFL games in U.S. history.For 2025, Netflix will air two of the Christmas games and Amazon Prime Video will stream the third as part of its Thursday Night Football package.

The NFL has steadily increased its Christmas Day presence since 2022, moving from avoiding the date to embracing it with tripleheaders-even when the holiday falls on a midweek day. Goodell also confirmed that while several teams, including the Chiefs, have expressed interest in becoming Christmas Day regulars, the league will continue to rotate participating teams and not assign any franchise a permanent holiday slot.

In addition, Goodell revealed a tweak to Thanksgiving scheduling: starting in 2025, the traditional Lions’ game will move from a 12:30 p.m. ET kickoff to 1 p.m. ET, aligning more closely with standard Sunday afternoon game times.

The 2025 NFL schedule will be released on May 14, with specific Christmas matchups to be announced at that time.