How many days until Boxing Day?

About Boxing Day

Boxing Day, 26 December, is a public holiday in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries, falling the day after Christmas. Its name likely derives from the tradition of giving Christmas boxes — gifts or money — to tradespeople and servants. The date is fixed. Today it is associated with sport, large retail sales, and continued family gatherings. When the 26th falls on a weekend, a substitute weekday holiday is usually granted. Alongside Christmas Day it forms the core of the winter break across much of the English-speaking world.

Date rule: Always 26 December.

When is the next Boxing Day?

The next Boxing Day is Saturday, December 26, 2026 — in 191 days. The countdown at the top of this page updates every second in your own time zone, so the number stays accurate wherever you are reading from. Because Boxing Day is treated as an all-day calendar date rather than a fixed clock time, the countdown rolls over at midnight in your local zone, not at midnight UTC. If you are coordinating across regions, set reminders against this date and let each person's device localise it.

This year the holiday lands on a Saturday, which means it falls on a weekend — many workplaces that observe it grant a substitute day off on the nearest weekday instead. Across the next five occurrences listed below, Boxing Day touches 5 different weekdays and lands on a weekend 2 of those 5 years — useful when you are planning travel, time off, or a recurring event around it.

How the Boxing Day date is set

Boxing Day belongs to the western & secular calendar tradition. Always 26 December. Because the date is fixed, the only thing that changes from year to year is the weekday it falls on, and whether countries that observe it move the public-holiday day when it lands on a weekend. That makes it straightforward to plan years ahead: the date in the table below is the date every time.

If you want the dates in your own calendar app, use the live countdown above, then jump to the western & secular countdowns or the full holiday list to line up the surrounding observances. For a date-by-date planning view, the five-year table gives you the exact weekday for each upcoming year at a glance.

Boxing Day dates for the next five years

Boxing Day FAQ

Related western & secular countdowns

More countdowns