[Lord Snooty]

December 25:

So here it is Merry Christmas. Everybody's having football fun. Well they were in the old days. As I mentioned yesterday, the Christmas Day fixture was a regular feature of the football calendar, right up to the 1950s. This was because it was one of very few public holidays back then, before the Trades Unions went out and won us all these rights that so many people take for granted these days.

Our last Christmas Day match was as recent as the 58/59 season, when on this date in 1958, Charlton Athletic traveled up to the West Riding of Yorkshire to play the Town at Leeds Road. This was a year and four days after that 7-6 scoreline, but there was only one goal in this one and it was Stan Howard who scored it to give us a 1-0 win, watched by 14,295 people.

The first Christmas Day fixture for Huddersfield Town came in our very first season in the North Eastern League, a 6-1 defeat at Park Avenue against the Bradford Park Avenue reserves in 1908.

The first Football League Christmas Day fixture came on this date in 1911, a 3-1 win at home to Glossop North End. Harry Taylor, James Richardson and Fred Fayers scored our goals.

Two years later, on this date in 1913, the great Billy Smith made his Town debut, the first of 574 games he played for us over a 21 year period. Sadly, it was a 3-0 defeat at home to Hull City. The day after, in the return fixture, he scored his first Town goal, in another loss.

After the war, Billy scored another Christmas goal. On this date in 1919, he scored one of the goals in a 7-1 win over Rotherham County. This was of course, the time when we almost went under and taken over by Leeds United. Crowds had been really low earlier in the season as the crisis came to a head. Less than 3,000 came to the Fulham game, but the Leeds Road attendance record of 15,459 in 1911 against Chelsea, was well and truly smashed in this game when 26,000 spectators came out to support the club.

Billy scored one of the goals, the other six came from just two players and it was the first occasion that two Town players scored hat tricks in the same game. We can't get two hat tricks in the same decade nowadays.

The two players were Jack Swann and Frank Mann. I've mentioned it before but I'll mention it again. Jack was the oldest surviving FA Cup winner by the time the Centenary Cup Final came around and so was the VIP guest for the day. And Frank was until recently, the oldest player to play for Manchester United at the age of 39.

Five years later, we had not only been saved from merging with Leeds, but we were by now the Football League champions. What a five years that must've been. On this date in 1924, Town made the short trip over the hills to Turf Moor for a Christmas Day game with Burnley. They themselves had been League champions recently, but the current champions thrashed them on their own turf by five goals to one. It was Charlie Wilson doing the damage in this one. He scored four of the goals and George Brown got the other.

Moving on another five years, on this date in 1929, Town went darn the Smoke to play West Ham United. Don't know how they got there. Did train drivers not get public holidays? They need to get Mick Lynch on the case. 

Anyway, somebody I've been writing about a lot this year got his first Town goals in this match. That's Dave Mangnall, who had made his debut in a defeat against Arsenal just before Christmas. He scored twice in the match at Upton Park. The famous Alex Jackson scored the first goal of the game as Town won 3-2.

By the time the 1950s came around, the great British public were being sold the idea of the pefect family Christmas and things were getting commercialised. Not that I remember it, but Bing Crosby was singing about his White Christmas. Well there were white Christmases back then.

Another long trip came on this date in 1952. Not for our lads this time. It was Swansea Town who had to come all the way to Huddersfield for the Christmas Day festivities. Santa Claus didn't come to Town for them. The poor old Swans a swimming got stuffed. Three-nil to the 'Udders.

Willie Davie, Vic Metcalfe and Jimmy Glazzard (pictured) got the goals in the season that ended with promotion back to Division One.