An office chat earlier in the week surrounding the Christmas sporting calendar led me to discover that there will be no local football or rugby action between December 27 and January 4.

The Christmas period is usually a busy time in the world of sport. Top-level football is the perfect example of this, with Premier League teams playing four times between Boxing Day and the first weekend on January.

They will play one round of league games between December 26-27, another between December 28-29, and another between January 1-2, before a full round of FA Cup third round fixtures between January 3-6.

The local football landscape over Christmas is of stark contrast, however.

There is the standard packed programme of Boxing Day action, with full fixture lists in the South West Peninsula League, St Piran League, Combination League and Trelawny League football, plus the traditional rugby derby between Penryn and Falmouth.

But other than a smattering of Trelawny League games and a solitary Combination League Cup tie, the football landscape is somewhat bereft of any other festive fun until January 4, when normal Saturday service is resumed.

This surprised me, as this would surely be considered prime time in terms of getting people through the gates at grounds and money in the coffers, with people, by and large, having more time off around this period.

Of course, in today’s world of increased weekend and holiday shift work, it can be harder to get time off to watch and, indeed, play football.

The other caveat this year is, with Boxing Day falling on a Thursday, it only leaves two days before the standard Saturday afternoon, which is less than ideal.

Nonetheless, that is the hand we’ve been dealt this year, so we’ll have to make the most of Boxing Day.