Minnesota sports fans should be prepared for a fun-filled afternoon and evening of sports on December 25. For the first time ever, both the Vikings and Timberwolves will be playing on Christmas Day.
Neither team is necessarily synonymous with playing on the holiday. This will only be the fifth time that the Vikings are playing football on Christmas, and this will be the Timberwolves’ fourth instance doing so.
Vikings play at home against the Lions
The Vikings won’t have to travel for the holidays as their Christmas game will be taking place at U.S. Bank Stadium. Their opponent is an NFC North rival in the Detroit Lions. The game will take place at 3:30 p.m. CT and will air on Netflix.
The matchup will be during Week 17 of the NFL schedule, meaning both teams will have just one game remaining after this one. If this season is anything like the last one, the Christmas Day outing will have huge importance.
Last year, the two teams met during the last week of the regular season. The winner would take the NFC North Division title and earn a bye in the opening round of the playoffs. The loser would instead be forced to go on the road for that opening round. Unfortunately, the game wasn’t close as the Lions won 31-9.
Of course, a big difference for the Vikings this year is that J.J. McCarthy is taking over the reins at quarterback for the departed Sam Darnold. Minnesota is just 1-3 on Christmas Day, with the win coming back in 1989.
Timberwolves go on the road to play the Nuggets
While the Vikings will be at home, the Timberwolves will have to travel to Denver on Christmas to take on the Nuggets. While the time hasn’t been announced, since Shams Charania listed it as the fifth game on the Christmas docket, it will likely be at 9:30 p.m. CT. That means fans who want to go to the Vikings game should be back home with time to spare to watch the Wolves.
Minnesota swept the four-game season series with the Nuggets last year. They also met in the playoffs in both 2023 and 2024, with the Timberwolves advancing past Denver in the latter year. The last two seasons has seen the Nikola Jokić-led Nuggets finish with just one more win than Minnesota during the regular season.
Anthony Edwards poured in 26 points in the Timberwolves’ 105-99 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Christmas Day last year. The Wolves now own an all-time record of 2-1 on the holiday.