S
otheby’s is proud to present the game worn jerseys from the 2025–2026 NBA Christmas Day Games.
Christmas Day has long stood as one of the NBA’s most prestigious stages, defined by marquee matchups, star-powered talent, and a national spotlight reserved for the league’s biggest moments. Alongside the games themselves, Christmas Day has also served as a platform for distinctive uniform treatments, with special jerseys and patches becoming an integral part of the games’ visual identity.
The NBA’s Christmas Day games rank among the most anticipated events on the league calendar. Each year’s schedule release draws attention not only for the matchups themselves, but for the uniforms and special edition details created exclusively for the holiday.
The tradition first took shape with the introduction of a snowflake patch, placed on the shoulder above the NBA logo, signifying teams selected to play on Christmas Day. In later years, the league expanded the concept through thematic storytelling, highlighting red and green matchups and introducing unique holiday-specific uniform designs.
In 2017, the Christmas Day jersey program was discontinued following the NBA’s uniform partnership transition from adidas to Nike, placing a brief hiatus on a long-standing holiday tradition.
After several seasons without dedicated Christmas Day uniforms, the snowflake patch returned in 2023—an outcome attributed, at least in part, to the public advocacy of LeBron James.
On December 24, 2019, James tweeted,
“MAN I wish I walked into the locker room tomorrow and we had Christmas Day uniforms! It’s a MUST we bring those back @Nike @nikebasketball.”
Four years later, on December 24, 2023, he echoed the sentiment, writing,
“I do wish we had Xmas Day uniforms across the league still. Wonder why it stopped.”
Christmas 2023, every jersey worn across the league featured a snowflake patch sewn onto the back of the uniform—a detail that has continued into subsequent seasons. The patch reintroduced a unified visual marker for the holiday, restoring a sense of continuity and tradition to Christmas Day games, and is the defining feature that distinguishes these jerseys for game-worn collectors.
The 2025 Christmas Day slate marked the third consecutive season featuring NBA Christmas Day Snowflake patches, and the 18th straight year of NBA games played on December 25. The day showcased five marquee matchups:
New York Knicks (126) vs. Cleveland Cavaliers (124)
Denver Nuggets (142) vs. Minnesota Timberwolves (138)
The games featured performances that matched the significance of the stage. Nikola Jokić delivered a historic 56-point triple-double against Minnesota, becoming the first player to record a 50-point triple-double on Christmas Day. Anthony Edwards added 44 points in the same contest, while Jalen Brunson and Donovan Mitchell each scored 34 points in a tightly contested Knicks–Cavaliers matchup, also highlighted by the performance of Knicks guard Tyler Kolek. LeBron James capped the day with a 31-point performance for the Lakers against the Rockets.
The snowflake patches provide a visual reference, while the performances, storylines, and players themselves define the significance of each Christmas Day jersey. In 2025, these elements combined in abundance, offering collectors examples that are both visually distinct and deeply tied to on-court achievement.
Bid now on game worn Christmas jerseys and more.
The exclusive online auction is open for bidding from January 20 to January 26th, at Sotheby’s.
