A comprehensive guide to the essential Christmas and new year sport on TV – Telegraph.co.uk

Christmas Eve features 11 games. Redzone (available on Red Button and Sky Sports Mix) lets you follow all at once in gloriously action-packed and advert-free style.

Highlights abound, but Baltimore Ravens vs Pittsburgh Steelers is likely to be a fantastically bad-tempered alternative to falling out with your mother over a late night board game on Christmas Day.

The season concludes with a full slate of games on New Year’s Day, beginning at 18.00.

There’s also plenty of basketball to get stuck into, with three superb games taking place on Christmas Day, including a re-match of last year’s NBA finals between LeBron James’s Cleveland Cavs and more or less every other good player in the league’s Golden State Warriors. Celtics vs Knicks and Bulls vs Spurs either side of that game should also be excellent.

There’s plenty of hockey, too, on Christmas Eve. What could be more festive than angry Canadians committing unspeakable violene: on ice?

Day-by-day highlights

Christmas Eve 

Wasps vs Bath, BT Sport, 2pm

Indianapolis Colts vs Oakland Raiders, Sky Sports 1, 9pm

Christmas Day

Cincinnati Bengals vs Houston Texans, Sky Sports 1, 1.25am

Golden State Warriors vs Cleveland Cavaliers, BT Sport 1, 7.30pm

Baltimore Ravens vs Pittsburgh Steelers, Sky Sports 1 , 9.30pm

Australia vs Pakistan, BT Sport 3, 11.30pm

Boxing Day

Denver Broncos vs Kansas City Chiefs, Sky Sports 1, 1.15am

Big Bash Cricket, Channel 5, 7.45am

Watford vs Crystal Palace, Sky Sports 1, 12.30pm

Kempton and Wetherby, Channel 4, 1.30pm

Hull vs Man City, Sky Sports 1, 5.15pm

Tuesday 27 Dec 

Kempton and Chepstow, Channel 4, 1.25pm

Liverpool vs Stoke, Sky Sports 1, 5.15pm

World Darts Championship (evening session), Sky Sports 1, 7.45pm

Wednesday 28 Dec

Southampton vs Tottenham, Sky Sports 1, 7.45pm

Thursday 29 Dec

Tennis World Championship, Eurosport, 1pm

Aston Villa vs Leeds, Sky Sports 1, 7.45pm

Friday 30 Dec

Newcastle Falcons vs Wasps, BT Sport, 7.45pm

Hull vs Everton, Sky Sports 1, 8pm

New Year’s Eve

Rangers vs Celtic, Sky Sports 1, 12.15pm

Bath vs Exeter, BT Sport, 3pm

Liverpool vs Man City, BT Sport 1, 5.30pm

New Year’s Day

Brisbane International Tennis tournament, Eurosport, 1am

Watford vs Tottenham, Sky Sports 1, 1.30pm

Arsenal vs Crystal Palace, Sky Sports 1, 4pm

NFL regular season concludes, Redzone, Sky Sports Mix / Red button, 6pm

World Darts Championship (Semi-finals), Sky Sports 1, 7pm

Monday 2 Jan

South Africa vs Sri Lanka, Sky Sports 2, 8am

Middlesbrough vs Leicester City, Sky Sports 1, 12.30pm

West Ham vs Man Utd, Sky Sports 1, 5.15pm

World Darts Championship (Final), Sky Sports 1, 8pm

Tuesday 3 Jan

Bournemouth vs Arsenal, Sky Sports 1, 7.45pm

Wednesday 4 Jan

Tottenham vs Chelsea, Sky Sports 1, 8pm