Following the winter of 1962–1963, which caused the postponement of many sports fixtures, undersoil heating was installed at Headingley.

This ensured that the surface would be playable for the 1963 Boxing Day match between Leeds and Wakefield, and led to the league schedule including a Leeds home fixture on Boxing Day every year apart from 1994 when they were away to Hull F.C.

[3] In 1995, Leeds defeated Castleford at Headingley in their final competitive Boxing Day match before the move to the summer era.

[4] In 1996, Gary Hetherington, the recently appointed chief executive at Leeds, wanted to continue the tradition of a Boxing Day game so a friendly against Halifax was played as the first "festive challenge".

In the following years Leeds played Halifax three more times and faced Bradford Bulls in 1999.