As we will hear plenty of managers saying over the coming week, the Christmas fixture list is brutal on the legs of a footballer.
Boxing Day matches, followed by another full round of fixtures crammed in almost straight away and then games on New Year provide bosses with a unique selection headache as they try to balance the pursuit of three points with maintaining the condition of their players.
It is, therefore, imperative that players train and look after themselves as responsibly as ever on Christmas Day. Families across the country will have their feet up and their plates overflowing, but it is business as usual for the players and managers finessing their preparation on the eve of another game.
Most footballers are desperate for a home fixture, so they don't have to stay in a hotel overnight on Christmas Day evening.
'You just get used to it,' Jamie Carragher said on Sky Sports about training on Christmas Day. 'The worst is when you are away from home but you always train on Christmas Day.
'If it is a home game, it was almost a case of getting in as early as you can, 9-10 and then get back home.
'The away one, you'd be in a hotel on Christmas night, you'd train later in the day. Normally the fixtures mean you wouldn't be too far away.'
Shay Given is now Derby's goalkeeping coach so will still be working on Christmas Day after a playing career that spanned over 20 years.
'If you've got kids it's a problem,' Given told the Irish Independent. 'At least if you've got a home game you can train as normal on Christmas morning and get back and see the kids.'
Ian Wright claimed to particularly enjoy training on Christmas Day because of how quiet everywhere was.
'It's weird, when you drive on Christmas morning there's no-one there – it's beautiful. Everyone's really nice, people wave to you in the cars because it's Christmas morning… even Spurs fans!' Wright told The Sun.
'But when you get to training it's all the same – all the guys have just left their families and it's just one of those things that you get used to as the years go by.'
The challenge in terms of discipline would often come later in the day, at Christmas dinner time when the families offer around the alcohol.
'A lot of family could never get their heads around it,' Carragher said. 'They'd be like have a drink! And we'd be like "got a game" but it didn't bother me too much.
'One drink or something isn't going to do absolutely anything but I'd never drink at Christmas. I don't understand having one or two - go out and have a good drink or what is the point? I've never drank in the house, ever.'
It was the same for Given.
'I wouldn't be drinking, and I'd be having smaller plates than everyone else,' the Irishman said. 'They'd be cracking open a few drinks whereas I'd be on the water.'
And players travelling away from home would often have their dinner together, Wright said.
'Arsene Wenger always wanted us to eat together,' he said. 'We'd have turkey when we got to the team hotel – but we just had to have bucketloads of broccoli!'
For Sportsmail columnist Peter Crouch, this Christmas is his first without being a professional footballer and as he revealed in last week's column, he misses the atmosphere around a club at this time of the year.
'You can't imagine what it's been like these past few years, jumping in the car at 12 o'clock to drive up a quiet motorway while everyone comes around to our house to enjoy the festivities,' Crouch said.
'Now it is here, I'm having feelings I never expected. Why is it that I'm missing playing football more than at any point in the last six months?
'Christmas was really a time when I came alive. It might have been a chore to leave the family behind, but the atmosphere at the training ground was always good on that day; different from normal.
'I always felt the Christmas schedule separated the men from boys. You get into a zone of playing and training and you lose track of the days but it's brilliant.
'You feel fit and fresh when everyone is hungover and you know the FA Cup third round is just around the corner.
'There really is no better time of year for football. This one, of course, is going to be a culture shock. It's going to be brilliant and the idea of staying on the couch on Boxing Day and watching games non-stop is glorious.
'At the same time, I'm thinking about what I used to have and I am missing it.'
So with all that in mind - the broccoli, the gallons of water, the hotel on Christmas night - it would be almost rude not to settle down with a Turkey sandwich on Boxing Day and watch all the football results roll in, wouldn't it?
This year in the Premier League, Tottenham host Brighton in the early game before six matches kick off at 3pm.
Manchester United host Newcastle is the 5.30pm match and then, in the stand-out clash of the day, leaders and Club World Cup winners Liverpool are away to second place Leicester.
